The 2025/26 Scottish Premiership will see its first true top-of-the-table encounter this weekend.
Early pace-setters Heart of Midlothian have the chance to extend their lead to eight points at Tynecastle Park with champions Celtic in town.
The Hoops responded to last weekend’s defeat in Dundee with a win in the Europa League on Thursday. Although injuries to Kelechi Ihenacho in the opening 25 minutes and a returning Alastair Johnston meant the 2-1 win over Sturm Graz wasn’t without its issues.
Meanwhile, centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers played the closing stages against the Austrian side after picking up a knock and has since been ruled out until next year. Daizen Maeda missed the game completely and is a doubt for Sunday.
Those will give Brendan Rodgers a few decisions to make ahead of Sunday, though he brushed off any concerns about squad depth.
For Hearts, it looks likely that it will be the same team for the fifth game in a row, with Brazilian midfielder Ageu back in training and in contention.
Craig Cairns has a look at the different styles of the two sides and a few of the key battles for Sunday’s big game.
Clash of styles
Both teams take a high-intensity approach to the game. How they do it differs.
Rodgers has a specific way of asking his side to play, building out from the back. After passing out from the goalkeeper, who acts as a spare outfielder, the full-backs are asked to come inside while two wingers – either side of a No.9 – stay high and wide.
Once the press is beaten, it’s about their midfield rotations, quick passing and creating overloads. The full-backs join the attack too, often underlapping.
Hearts are an effective counterpressing side this season, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out against Celtic’s possession-based approach.
Derek McInnes’ style is a bit more chaotic and, especially in this 4-4-2, more about the relationships between players. Hearts aren’t afraid to go long. If you compare the average goalkeeper pass length for each of the Premiership clubs, for example, Celtic’s is the shortest and Hearts’ is among the longest.
That’s not to say that Hearts’ approach is total chaos. They still work on teasing out the opponent and switching the play to get wide players and full-backs getting the ball into the box. They choose their moments to do so.
One of the side-effects of Hearts' wing play is set-pieces, from which they have scored six times – and that doesn’t include those from the second phase of corner or free kick. Celtic have failed to score directly from a set piece in the league, though did do so on Thursday night. Both sides have conceded twice from set pieces.
Interestingly, Celtic have better xG (13.24 versus 10.92) and xG conceded (4.59 versus 6.50), even though Hearts have scored 19 and conceded six to Celtic’s 11 and 5, respectively.
Looking at more recent form, however, Celtic haven't scored in six of their last 12 matches and Hearts haven't conceded in four and a half games.
Key battles
Injuries in Thursday night’s game have raised questions over the availability of a few Celtic players, and they just so happen to be where some of the key battles could be.
Alexandros Kyziridis v Colby Donovan
After Johnston was forced off with an injury on Thursday, his first game since August, it seems unlikely he will be available for Sunday. Anthony Ralston has played in his absence but Rodgers called for Scotland under-21 international Colby Donovan to replace Johnston in the Europa League tie.
That leaves it unclear who will start. Whoever it is will have their work cut out taming one of the league’s form players in Alexandros Kyziridis.
The winger has four goals and five assists to his name already despite limited game time. One of the standouts since McInnes settled on a starting XI.
Read more
- Bearpit, Bloom, Bednar: Why the biggest challenge is Hearts' biggest opportunity
- Brendan Rodgers on injured Celtic trio, Hearts challenge and Tony Bloom comments
- The return of Ageu: Training plan before Celtic, terrific Hearts duo, options
- 'Something exciting' - Tony Bloom's FOH message to Hearts fans ahead of visit
Craig Halkett v Daizen Maeda/Johnny Kenny
The main question is who will play through the middle for Celtic. Ihaenacho looks unlikely to be fit and Maeda is a doubt. The Japanese forward isn't naturally a No.9 but started the season there and is one of the better players in the Celtic team when fit and on form.
If both those players aren't available, then Rodgers may well give Kenny just his second league start for the club.
Whoever it is will be up against Hearts' in-form centre-back pairing, particularly the resurgent Craig Halkett. In Celtic's box, with Carter-Vickers ruled out, it will be up to Liam Scales and possibly another youngster, Dane Murray, tasked with stopping Halkett and Findlay, adding to their nine goals so far this season.
Celtic’s main threats could instead come from the wings. Go-both-sides winger Sebastian Tounekti has caught the eye but hasn’t quite put an end product on it yet. Benjamin Nygren has been cutting in from the right and has been arguably Celtic’s best player this season.
Cammy Devlin v Callum McGregor
The middle of the park is frequently key in these types of games and there will be points when Lawrence Shankland drops in to help with the numerical disadvantage Hearts have in there should the teams line up as expected.
But if the home side get to play how they have at points this season, Shankland and Claudio Braga will mark the centre-backs while Devlin is usually the player to push up on the No.6 – or the deepest one if there are two.
With the form the Australian is in, at both winning the ball back and being positive with it, we have witnessed games this season, such as the recent Old Firm, that nullifying McGregor has been key to stopping Celtic from dictating the game.
