Celtic moved four points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 7-1 win over Hearts, whose tactics were questioned after they suffered a record-breaking collapse at Celtic Park.
Hearts returned to Glasgow seeking revenge after Celtic took the title from them in last season’s final-day showdown. Instead, Martin O’Neill’s side delivered a “devastating” display to underline the level required to win the league.
Hearts remain third, but are now four points behind Rangers. The defeat was particularly damaging given they had conceded only eight league goals before shipping seven in 90 minutes.
Celtic began with the attacking trio which finished Thursday’s 3-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica. Benjamin Nygren, Callum Osmand and Camilo Duran all scored as the hosts dismantled their title rivals.
Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd criticised Hearts’ application, saying: “That first half was devastating. Hearts, I cannot for the life of me work out what they were trying to do there.
“To come here and show the lack of respect to Celtic that Hearts have done today would be a wake-up call for me.
“You look at last year, Derek McInnes [then Hearts boss] got criticised for it from a lot of people in terms of just grinding out results. It may be an ugly watch but they were still there.
“I don’t see any of that Hearts team that’s going in the Celtic team. I don’t see any of it, so what would make you think you’re better than them?
“That there was an annihilation. I mean, I have never seen anything like it in my life.”
Former Hearts defender Ryan McGowan felt both teams contributed to the extraordinary scoreline.
“I couldn’t work out if Hearts were really poor or Celtic were really good. It’s probably a combination of the two of them,” he said.
“The amount of times that Hearts gave the ball away in really dangerous areas for Celtic, and there would only be two passes and it was a goal, and they continually did it throughout the whole game.
“There is levels to football. Hearts obviously last season went close and this season they want to challenge it and be up there. But you also have to understand the game.
“They’re 5-1 down at half-time and then whatever the manager said to them went completely out of their ears because then they conceded another goal four minutes into the second half.
“It was a really poor performance from Hearts, which you haven’t said that often in the last 12 months. At the same time, you’ve got to give Celtic a lot of credit.”
O’Neill still backs Hearts in title race
Despite the one-sided result after only nine league matches, O’Neill said Hearts remained serious challengers.
“It’s easy to be magnanimous after the game but they’re still big challengers,” the 74-year-old told Sky Sports.
“Everything clicked for us today. We might have had two more chances but everything that we hit went into the net.
“It was nice to win today because I was concerned after Thursday night, wondering how we feel, can we get ourselves together for it?
“Once you’ve put a couple of goals in front, then confidence just is so strong.”
Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken apologised for the performance and called for a swift response. Celtic host Benfica in the Europa League on Thursday, while Hearts travel to Trabzonspor in the Conference League.
“When you’re not on top level in the top games, then it’s really difficult to get a result,” Vrancken told Sky Sports.
“It was not good enough because of the individual mistakes and the two set plays which killed us at the beginning of the game.
“We made mistakes that we wouldn’t normally make. That’s it. I’m sorry.”
