Derek McInnes felt it was vital that Kilmarnock got back to winning ways after a double from Kyle Vassell helped them sink Livingston 3-1 at home.
The Rugby Park side had not won in the league since defeating Rangers on the opening day of the season but were relatively comfortable here as they moved up to fifth place in the table.
Danny Armstrong’s early goal was cancelled out by a Sean Kelly penalty but Vassell’s brace of headers left his manager a contented man.
McInnes said: “We needed to win. There was no getting away from that.
“I can sit here and go on about the positives – and there were some in the (other) performances.
“We have been good in isolated games and these teams – Hearts, St Mirren, Hibs – they are good sides. These are not gimmes.
“So there were a lot of games in this run we’ve done OK in – but I didn’t enjoy looking at the league table.
“Obviously we knew we could go fifth today and, while you don’t want to get too obsessed with the table when you’ve not played a quarter of the games, I like where we are sitting now.
“Let’s see if we can hang about there as long as we can now.
“We just needed to win. We spoke about it during the weeks as it’s hard to keep being positive when the wins were not coming.
“Today we ran hard, worked extremely hard all over the pitch and the physicality of the team was strong. That was really important.”
Livingston boss David Martindale was naturally disappointed, especially losing two goals to headers, one from a dead ball situation.
He said: “Take the scoreline away, the game went the way we thought it would, with set-plays playing a large part of the game.
“The first goal we should deal with a lot better down our right-hand side, although they did get a wee bit fortunate with a deflection.
“Kilmarnock had dominated us. Then we get the penalty and get back in the game but we get a kick in the stomach with their second goal.
“Our defensive line is terrible, Vassell gets a free header and is unmarked in our box going for a free-kick from a wide area.
“Our shape wasn’t great and in the one-against-one duels we got bullied a wee bit. Kilmarnock won more of their aerial duels and won more second balls than us.”
Rodgers salutes Celtic's 'Champions League mentality' in St. Johnstone rout
Brendan Rodgers paid tribute to Celtic's "Champions League mentality" in their 6-0 rout of St. Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.
Kyogo Furuhashi scored twice, while Paulo Bernardo, Callum McGregor, Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah were also on target for the Hoops, who warmed up for their midweek European trip to Borussia Dortmund in emphatic fashion.
The dominant victory moved Celtic back to the top of the Scottish Premiership table - ahead of Aberdeen on goal difference - as they continued their perfect start to the season, with a sixth win in as many games.
And Rodgers was pleased by the character his players demonstrated.
"I thought this was an opportunity to show our mentality," he told Premier Sports. "All the noise has been about Dortmund, but I wanted a Champions League mentality here, and I thought the boys controlled the game.
"We wanted to keep our rhythm going. You see some of the guys coming in this evening, like Valle coming in at left-back, showing his composure.
"Most were looking at it as a tick-box before Dortmund, but for me, it was to show their mentality. Everyone will be flying on Tuesday night, but I want to see how they do when they’re here, or other grounds. It’s a case of just focusing in on that.
"I thought the variety of our game was very good; everything you'd want from your team."
Looking ahead to Tuesday's clash with Bundesliga giants Dortmund, he added: "[They] are a good team with top players, so we can't get away from that.
"OK, they've lost one or two [players] from last year, but I always say we make sure we press, make sure we attack. It's a tough game, but we'll look forward to it."
Al Kholood 2-4 Al-Hilal: Koulibaly on target as champions move to summit
Al-Hilal withstood a late Al Kholood rally to move top of the Saudi Pro League following a 4-2 victory at King Abdullah Sport City Stadium.
The damage was done during a late first-half surge by the reigning champions, who leapfrogged Al-Ittihad to the summit of the table.
Al-Hilal broke the deadlock in the 38th minute through former Napoli and Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly, who finished after Renan Lodi initially struck the woodwork.
Malcom doubled the lead four minutes later, then Ali Al Bulayhi made it 3-0 in first-half stoppage time.
Former Atletico Madrid and Nottingham Forest defender Lodi then got in the act to make it four within three minutes of the restart.
The hosts finished the contest the stronger of the two sides with Hammam Al Hammami and a William Troost-Ekong penalty halving the deficit, but that rally could not prevent the visitors from remaining perfect after their first five games.
Data Debrief: Al-Hilal remain perfect
Al-Hilal have won each of their opening five games in a Saudi Pro League season for the third time in their history, also achieving the feat in 2010-11 and 2018-19.
Jorge Jesus' side also continued their dominant record against newly promoted clubs, having now won each of their last nine such matches.
Despite their late surge, Al Kholood suffered their third defeat of the season, though there was individual cause for celebration, as former Al-Hilal player Mohammed Jahfali came on for his 200th Saudi Pro League appearance.
St Johnstone 0-6 Celtic: Defending champions continue perfect start
Celtic stormed to the top of the Scottish Premiership with a thumping 6-0 win away at St Johnstone.
The defending champions thought they had taken the lead early on through Daizen Maeda, but VAR intervened due to a foul in the build-up.
Nevertheless, a brace from Kyogo Furuhashi and Paulo Bernardo's sumptuous strike virtually ended the contest at half-time.
There was to be no mercy in the second half though, as captain Callum McGregor added a fourth for Celtic shortly after the restart.
Maeda and substitute Adam Idah added further gloss to the scoreline to make it six league wins out of six for Brendan Rodgers' side so far this campaign and take them top, ahead of Aberdeen on goal difference.
St Johnstone are now just a point above second bottom in the table.
Data Debrief: Defence first
Celtic have kept a clean sheet in each of their last six games in the league.
Their last longer run of games without conceding a goal in the competition was a run of seven games from 26 April 2015 to 9 August 2015, so as well as their rampant attack, Rodgers' team have a mean defence, with St Johnston accumulating only 0.29 expected goals (xG) on Saturday.
With two assists in this match, meanwhile, Nicolas Kuhn now has four in total for the season, which is two more than any other player in the Scottish Premiership.
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