CELTIC swept Hearts aside for the 10th time in succession as they and their small band of supporters enjoyed a Sunday stroll in the capital sunshine.
Matt O’Riley got them off to a flyer with a brilliantly taken opener, before Daizen Maeda doubled their advantage before the interval.
They could even afford a missed penalty from Reo Hatate just after the break, with Kyogo Furuhashi getting his customary goal against Hearts just minutes later.
Hearts belatedly got a counter punch in as Lawrence Shankland took advantage of some slack Celtic play to reduce the arrears, but they never really looked likely to pull off a miraculous comeback.
Instead, Celtic substitute Tomoki Iwata put the icing on the cake with a brilliant late finish off the underside of the bar to get his first goal for the club.
Here are the talking points from Tynecastle…
O’RILEY A JOY TO WATCH
You know when a player is consistently producing the goods when he features in the talking points week after week, but with apologies to regular readers, O’Riley is making it possible to ignore him.
Denmark must be pretty well stocked in the midfield to have left him on the bench last week as he was called up to their senior squad for the first time, but it is also unlikely that their manager Kasper Hjalmund will be able to ignore him for much longer if he maintains this form.
He hit his sixth goal of the season here already in the opening minutes, drifting off the back of the dozy Hearts midfield all too easily to latch onto a beautiful, dinked pass from Luis Palma. The finish was sublime, taking the ball first time over his shoulder and caressing it into the far corner of the net on the volley.
Zander Clark had no chance, and from that moment on, neither did Hearts.
CELTIC CRUISE TO 10 IN-A-ROW
Well, what do you know? Brendan Rodgers was here for 10 in-a-row after all. Of a fashion.
Celtic have now defeated Hearts in their last 10 meetings, with five of those coming at Tynecastle.
Any notion that the famed atmosphere at the ground would have a chance of derailing Celtic, who only had their tiny wedge of 576 supporters along with them stuck in the corner of the Roseburn Stand, was quashed within minutes.
O’Riley’s goal winded Tynecastle, and when Maeda added a second it sucked the life clean out of the stadium.
Indeed, the only real noise that came from the home stands thereafter were the grumbles of discontent when someone in maroon – usually Alex Lowry – misplaced a pass, or the frequent, colourful suggestions towards manager Steven Naismith that he might not quite know what he was doing.
JUSTICE DONE AFTER SOFT PENALTY AWARD
Celtic didn’t really need a hand from the officials, but they got one when they were awarded a penalty by referee Nick Walsh seconds after the restart, as Kyogo turned Alex Cochrane in the area and went down under the challenge.
The official pointed to the spot, but the call seemed very much on the soft side, so much so it was something of a surprise that VAR upheld the decision.
It mattered not in the end, with a feeling of justice having been done as Hatate crashed his effort from 12 yards off the face of Clark’s right-hand post.
Tynecastle gave a roar as the fans tried to use the reprieve to inject a bit of life into the contest, but any notion it would spark their time to life was soon in tatters. Four minutes later, to be exact.
KYOGO KEEPS UP PERFECT RECORD AGAINST HEARTS
Hearts defenders and fans won’t be alone in being sick of the sight of Celtic’s goal machine, but they have more reason to be than most.
The Japanese has now played against the Jambos on eight occasions, and he has found the back of the net in every single one of those matches. And no wonder, when they make it as easy to score against them as they did here.
While Kyogo is known for his sublime movement, he didn’t have to do anything too fancy here to find acres of space in the centre of the Hearts area, and he duly made the hosts pay for their slackness.
Palma got in down the left – as he had done repeatedly – and his low cross evaded O’Riley’s waft of his right foot, but carried through to Kyogo.
He had a ridiculous amount of time to pick his spot, and he buried the ball high past Clark.
LAWRENCE SHANKLAND CUTS A FRUSTRATED FIGURE
Hearts talisman got his sixth goal of the season here, but it didn’t really tell the story of his afternoon.
The only way that Hearts looked likely to get any joy was if Celtic got a little sloppy, and at 3-0 up, that they did. Maeda dallied on the edge of his area and then played a poor square ball that only picked out Shankland.
The striker had been so isolated to that point it appeared as though his teammates had fallen out with him, but when Celtic gave him the ball, he showed what he could do. He turned and curled a fine finish low past Joe Hart into the corner and stopped one or two Hearts fans who were floating towards the exit in their tracks.
You can see why they would have given up hope, and Shankland must have been tempted to also until that point.
The striker doesn’t quite look at it. He appears off the pace in general play, and even physically, he doesn’t quite appear to be at his fighting weight.
Manager Naismith has to find a way to get the best from him – and get the ball to him more frequently – if Hearts are to have any chance of fulfilling their goals this season.
