SIX OF THE BEST AS CELTIC CRUSH RANGERS
The game was controlled from start to finish by O'Neill`s Bhoys, and Rangers could not recover from going 1-0 down within 51 seconds of the kick-off.
Sutton, playing his first Old Firm game for Celtic, latched onto a Larsson shot and smashed the ball home after Lorenzo Amoruso`s clearance only found the Swede on the edge of the area.
Rangers, though, went straight up the other end and almost created an immediate response when Billy Dodds got on the end of a Giovanni van Bronckhorst corner but headed across the goal when Jonathon Gould was beaten in the home net.
Celtic then doubled their lead, just seven minutes later, when Bulgarian Stilian Petrov stole in unmarked on the back post to head Lubomir Moravcik`s corner past the helpless Stefan Klos.
The Parkhead faithful could not believe what was happening and they were sent into heaven four minutes later when Paul Lambert made the score 3-0. The Scottish international midfielder broke into the area and once again Moravcik found space before laying the ball off to Lambert who smashed the ball past Klos.
Rangers then managed to drag themselves back into the game just before half time. Rod Wallace turned Alan Stubbs on the edge of the area and crossed to the back post where American Claudio Reyna headed past Gould, whose momentum prevented him from keeping the ball out.
But then, possibly, the match turned on one decision when Stuart Dougal disallowed Rod Wallace`s effort just a minute after Reyna`s goal.
Tugay - who had earlier replaced Dutch full back Fernando Ricksen - sent Wallace through and he beat Gould from an acute angle, but the referee's assistant flagged for offside when television replays showed he was clearly on-side.
Rangers boss Dick Advocaat would have given his side a blast at half time, but he would have been totally bemused by his side`s defending just five minutes after the break when Larsson grabbed his first of the game.
The dread-locked star latched onto the end of Sutton flick and lifted the ball into the top corner past Klos.
But, just four minutes later, Rangers dragged themselves back into the game when Wallace won a penalty after being barged to the floor by French defender Stephane Mahe. Dodds dispatched the spot-kick to claim his second of the game and his ninth of the season.
The game though was then put beyond the away side when Larsson headed his second following a free-kick from man-of-the-match Bobby Petta.
Tempers then started to get the better of a number of players and Barry Ferguson was booked for a challenge on Petrov, and Reyna soon followed his colleague into the book - also for a challenge on the Bulgarian.
Ferguson, the young Scottish international, was then sent-off with less than 10 minutes left after he deliberately handled the ball on the floor following a challenge from Johann Mjallby.
Larsson was then replaced by Mark Burchill, but his strike partner Sutton was to complete the scoring. Mahe broke down the left and squared the ball across the six-yard box and the former Chelsea man slid the ball home to seal a record SPL win for Celtic.
Bhoys manager Martin O'Neill was delighted with his first Old Firm game and he thought he team was excellent, commenting: "We were excellent and I really enjoyed my first experience but all the players played really well.
"The lads were powerful and did really well throughout the game, but this is only the start and we have to look towards the next game."
Counterpart Dick Advocaat was less complementary about his side, and said: "We have some players who overestimate themselves and they went trying to score goals instead of doing their job.
"We were 3-0 down before they realised and by then we had lost, nearly every Celtic attack finished in defeat.
"I know what I have to do and I know that my back four cannot play man for man."
