Published 19th Oct 2026, 07:45 BST
Celtic gave a timely reminder of why they are champions with a 7-1 dismantling of Hearts at Parkhead.
Martin O’Neill’s men opened up a four-point gap at the top of the Premiership as a result, with Hearts now eight points away in third place.
Mark Atkinson was at Celtic Park for The Scotsman and picks out four talking points.
This was Celtic at their ruthless best
Benjamin Nygren and Callum Osmand scored doubles, Camilo Duran and Kieran Tierney netted - plus an unfortunate own goal by Jamie McCart. Celtic didn’t leave too many gilt-edged chances on the table and manager O’Neill was delighted with his team’s efficiency.
Celtic will need to maintain their ruthlessness on Thursday when they come up against a more capable defence in La Liga side Celta Vigo. Having already lost their opening two Europa League matches, there is little margin for error.
Celtic haven’t been as emphatic for some time with their goalscoring. This win may be the spark and confidence boost their forwards require.
Duran has relegated Hogh
Kasper Hogh may have cost double the fee spent for Camilo Duran this summer at £12 million, but there is no doubt he is now playing second fiddle to the Colombian as Celtic’s No 9.
Duran was selected ahead of Hogh and he was led the line superbly with aggression and energy. He set up two goals in the first half and got in on the act at the start of the second. Hogh came on later in the game and grabbed an assist, but the Dane may now need to be patient from the bench.
Nevertheless, O’Neill still has faith in his record signing. “I said in an interview I did on Friday, Kasper will score goals for us,” he said. “He’s just feeling a bit down. He’s made a goal today so that gives him a bit of a a bit of a lift. Sometimes it happens, but he'll just get a goal and it get started again.
“I just think that the sort of form that Camilo is in at this moment. He traveled last week and was desperate to play after the birth of his child. I think he saw the child for about about an hour and then disappeared and wanted to come to us.
“We got him there and he wanted to play. I think that's probably his best position. But Kasper is a fighter, and he wants to he wants to go and I think he will definitely score goals. It’s easy for me to say now, but he'll score goals between now and the end of the season.”
Vrancken given food for thought
Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken has rightly earned plenty of plaudits for the way his team has played this season, but the Belgian must also take some flak for what happened at Celtic Park.
While the individual errors and lack of intensity can be put at the players’ door, Vrancken set them out to be attack-minded and leave space in transitions. This is part of the game he accepts. He wants Hearts to be always on the front foot and would rather win a game 4-2 than 2-0.
What Vrancken now must ponder is whether against better-resourced teams, there should be a little more pragmatism, some tweaks to the system. Philosophically, Vrancken is very unlikely to change. He has a way of playing and wants to stick with it. But for his next trip to Glasgow, he may make alterations.
Hearts simply can’t take a beating of that magnitude if they are to be considered title contenders. While their squad is improving all the time, going man-for-man with Celtic and being so cavalier - especially when you are a team that hasn’t won an away league match since January - is a tad foolish.
Maybe we will see a change on Thursday. If Hearts are that open against Trabzonspor in the Conference League in Turkey, things could get very messy indeed ...
Serie A scout
Scottish football is en vogue for a number of Italian clubs and Sassuolo are at the forefront of that.
They already have two Scots in their squad in the shape of defender Josh Doig and striker Kieron Bowie, so it was no surprise to discover that a representative from the Serie A side was in attendance at Celtic Park.
The Scotsman has learned that the beady-eyed Italian was taking in his third match of the weekend, having watched Aberdeen v St Mirren and then Dundee v Rangers on a jam-packed Saturday.
Who would have caught his gaze? Well, certainly nobody in a maroon shirt. And could Sassuolo afford the likes of Duran, Nygren and Co? Probably not. Chances are he was in attendance to analyse some Hearts players. If so, they fluffed their lines.
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