SINKING HEARTS
Natural order is slowly but surely being restored as Celtic reduce the deficit at the top to just one point
IT WAS Craig Levein who introduced the phrase ‘natural order’ to the Scottish football lexicon and this was a day that reinforced the view that his team’s stay at the summit of the Premiership is on borrowed time.
They say the league table doesn’t lie but Hearts’ lead, cut here to a solitary point, was mocked by this latest forceful display from a rejuvenated Celtic who look to have the bit between their teeth in pursuit of an eighth consecutive title.
Well beaten in last weekend’s Betfred Cup semi-final at Murrayfield, Levein’s men were turned over to an even greater extent by a side that has now won five consecutive league matches, scoring 21 goals in the process.
When these teams last met on league business things seemed very different.
A Kyle Lafferty goal settled the outcome at Tynecastle back in August and left Brendan Rodgers fielding a storm of questions surrounding Dedryck Boyata’s efforts to force a transfer amid an ailing bid to qualify for the Champions League.
Boyata has since been restored to the fray and handed a new, reliable defensive partner in Filip Benkovic. With that solid base installed, Celtic have rediscovered their old zip.
Benkovic headed his first goal since joining on loan from Leicester City in a performance that exposed the flaws in a Hearts team creaking in the face of an extensive injury list.
Levein has been forced to mix and match his team over the past few weeks and, while a summer of extensive recruitment has at least given him plenty of fall-back options, this was a performance crying out for the organisational skills of Christophe Berra, the ceaseless drive of Steven Naismith or even the sheer brute force of Uche Ikpeazu, who caused the champions so many problems in that last league contest.
After a hard midfield shift in Wednesday’s Edinburgh derby, Levein handed Olly Lee and Oliver Bozanic a rest, pairing Peter Haring with teenager Harry Cochrane in the middle and Jake Mulraney coming in up front.
Levein later held his hands up for adopting an overly-defensive approach, although in reality there seemed too little protection for the likes of on-loan Burnley defender Jimmy Dunne who — in the absence of Berra and John Souttar — is now the main pillar in front of keeper Bobby Zlamal.
A slip from the 21-year-old allowed Ryan Christie an opportunity to shoot wide and soon Zlamal’s goal was under siege.
At Celtic, Odsonne Edouard is carrying a similar weight of responsibility at an even younger age.
The sale of Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths’ ongoing fitness issues has left the Frenchman as the only recognised striker and, if the £9million price tag seemed to burden him in the early weeks of the season, he now looks energised and enlivened by the team’s return to form.
Edouard didn’t score at Murrayfield last Sunday but he didn’t take long here, the clock striking 17 minutes as he deftly side-stepped Haring’s challenge and lofted a powerful shot in off the underside of the bar from 20 yards.
Goal number two was a set-piece special. Callum McGregor provided the near-post delivery and Benkovic got the run on Dunne to head into the far corner.
Poor Dunne was having a horrible
afternoon but he and fellow centre-back Clevid Dikamona were facing a relentless tide of attacks, with Celtic’s left-flank axis of Scott Sinclair and Kieran Tierney rampant.
The third saw Tierney whip in a cross between centre-backs and keeper, with Edouard again outmanoeuvring Dunne to knock the ball past Zlamal with what appeared to be his right knee.
While nowhere near as pretty, Rodgers might secretly have been more pleased with this poacher’s finish than the earlier spectacular.
Game put to bed, the home support took to chanting in support of the club’s former captain and manager Neil Lennon, who was hit by a flying coin during the Tynecastle derby.
By his own standards Tom Rogic was having a quietish game but his nimble footwork created space for a shot that Zlamal pushed wide.
Celtic’s fluency temporarily disappeared at the break as Levein threw on Ben Garuccio for Demetri Mitchell at left-back and all over the pitch Hearts looked a more coherent, organised unit.
They started to press harder and higher too and, had Steven MacLean been a few years younger, he might have latched on to Boyata’s undercooked pass-back before Craig Gordon. That heart-fluttering moment seemed to jolt Celtic and when Gordon was next asked to deal with a ball at his feet he produced a neat piece of footwork that sparked a counter-attack.
Faced with the on-rushing Mulraney, Gordon flicked the ball up and killed it dead before possession was transferred through Kristoffer Ajer, on at right-back for skipper Mikael Lustig, to McGregor.
Deputising for Scott Brown in the anchor role, McGregor’s main task had been to keep play ticking over but he saw his chance to set off on a gallop that ended with Zlamal tipping his shot just wide.
Edouard turned provider for the fourth, prodding a pass into the path of James Forrest who whipped his shot beyond Zlamal to round off a pleasant week in which he was crowned October’s Premiership Player of the Month.
Hearts threatened twice more, first when MacLean’s shot was deflected wide and then as Garuccio slammed a drive into the post. But it was Celtic who rounded the match off in style.
Tierney and Christie flicked and tricked their way through the build-up down the left before Forrest was clipped as he worked space for the shot.
Christie then stepped up and slotted home the penalty.