Jota is back, and so is the mood

Jota's absence has been felt all season. A forward who tilts games just by being on the grass, his long-term injury left Celtic short of the spark that usually makes them tick in the final third, and it coincided with a run of results and off-field noise that had supporters uneasy.

BBC Sport reports that his return against Motherwell came as Celtic delivered what the outlet called a strong response, with the win doing real work to lift the gloom that had settled around the club. The specifics of minutes played and the final margin weren't detailed in the report, but the framing is clear: this was a day that mattered beyond three points.

Jota's return and the Motherwell win

Celtic have had a difficult run of internal tension recently, the kind that seeps into a dressing room and shows up in performances. A convincing win alone wouldn't fix that. Having Jota back on the pitch while it happened gives the squad something more useful: proof that the pieces they've been missing are starting to return at the same time results do.

That combination, a senior attacker back from injury plus a response on the pitch, is exactly the kind of moment clubs try to point to when they talk about turning a corner. Celtic Park crowds have had patience tested lately. A game like this buys some of it back.

What it means going forward

None of this erases whatever caused the acrimony in the first place. But Jota reintegrating into the side gives Brendan Rodgers and his players a genuine boost heading into the next block of fixtures, and a win of this nature against Motherwell is the sort of result Celtic will want to build a run from rather than treat as a one-off.

For now, Celtic have a fit-again forward and a result that quieted some of the noise, which on 11 October is more than they had the week before.