Up went the flag, down went the challenge. Celtic served immediate notice of their intent to pick up where they left off with a display straight from last year’s record-breaking playbook. Having seen those exploits marked in customary fashion before the game, Brendan Rodgers’ side gave the rest of the Ladbrokes Premiership zero reason to think we won’t be doing it all again this time next year.
It would be harsh on Hearts to say they ran up a white flag — nobody who heard interim manager Jon Daly afterwards could possibly agree — but aside from a reasonable first half-hour, and a late flurry that saw substitute Ismael Goncalves score a consolation, the visitors were submerged.
Leigh Griffiths got himself, and his goal count, up and running, Scott Sinclair gave Jamie Brandon a torrid time down the left, and Callum McGregor impressed again, landing Celtic’s fourth with a typically forthright hit.
Even Rodgers may tire of it eventually, but same again was what he ordered and same again was what he got. “We had to be patient because Hearts set up very well and kept it tight and compact, so we had to find the spaces. I was disappointed to be only one up at half-time but the second half they started to tire a bit and we got between them a bit more. We scored four and could maybe have had more.”
As had been in the case in the last half hour in Trondheim, Griffiths was straining at the leash. He’d only missed a couple of games, but for a hyperactive soul, it will still have been absolute torture.
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That was precisely what he dished out to the Hearts defence, who couldn’t get a handle on his movement. It didn’t help that they rarely worked as a unit — the left-back Rafal Grzelak particularly guilty of failing to step out with the rest — but Griffiths has made a mug of better players, as England can attest.
Whether the ball arrived on the deck or over the top, the 26-year-old was always first to it and Hearts had already been served a couple of clear warnings before the little man found the net. Nir Bitton, again a composed figure in that unfamiliar centre-back role, lofted a precisely weighted pass which took out the right half of the Hearts defence and gave Griffiths clear sight of Jack Hamilton.
The goalkeeper’s response was unconvincing, his weak touch neither stopping nor distracting Griffiths, and the ball was duly tucked away.
“To get a hundred goals at a club like this would be massive for me,” said the former Hibee, who is now on 87. “Over the years a lot of great strikers have played here and not hit that mark.
“We wanted to set a marker against Hearts and we did that. Last season was great for us, but it’s a new season now and we want to set even more records.”
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With Sinclair also clicking through the gears after a relatively quiet time of it against Rosenborg, Hearts more than had their hands full, and drew the ire of the home crowd for what they considered roughhouse tactics.
There were a couple of occasions where Grzelak didn’t spare James Forrest but, predictably enough, it was Kyle Lafferty who walked the finest line. The one-time Rangers striker had promised “fireworks”, but Daly may have been more tempted to reach for a rocket as one of his most experienced players risked getting himself sent off after barely 35 minutes.
Having already been booked for a foul on Bitton, Lafferty went to ground theatrically to the left of the Celtic box. If there was any doubt for referee Kevin Clancy to give him amid torrential rain, it concerned the greasy turf, but never mind losing his footing, Lafferty looked in serious danger of being separated from the plot. Maybe it was just the loneliness.
The hosts, by contrast, had their usual threat from everywhere. McGregor, preferred to Stuart Armstrong, was rampant in the second half, having come close to doubling Celtic’s lead right at the end of the first after a delicious Scott Brown flick.
Going through that familiar routine of finding space at the edge of the box before carefully measuring a left-foot shot, McGregor had twice forced Hamilton into saves when he got in behind down the right and used his weaker foot to tee up Griffiths for a diving header while Hearts appealed for offside.
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That made it 3-0, Sinclair having enjoyed a similarly straightforward finish at the far post after Aaron Hughes made a hash of clearing Griffiths’ corner and diverted it towards his own goal.
The icing the Celtic crowd wanted was for Lafferty to boil over, and Clancy again had a decision to make when the Northern Irishman jumped with Kieran Tierney and appeared to catch him in the face. The left-back made clear his own verdict by slapping Lafferty’s outstretched mitt in a way that stretched the definition of “handshake”.
Things weren’t about to get any more cordial when Daly entered the press room, but it’s as hard as ever to imagine Rodgers suffering any serious domestic discomfort.
Star man: Callum McGregor (Celtic)
Yellow cards: Celtic: Brown Hearts: Grzelak, Smith, Lafferty
Referee: Kevin Clancy
Attendance: 58,843
Celtic: Gordon 6, Lustig 6, Bitton 7, Simunovic 6, Tierney 6, Brown 7, Ntcham 7 (Armstrong 86min, 5), Forrest 6, McGregor 8 (Rogic 75min, 5), Sinclair 7, Griffiths 8 (Hayes 67min, 5) Unused Substitutes: De Vries, Ajer, Ralston, Kouassi
Hearts: Hamilton 5, Brandon 5, Hughes 5, Berra 6, Grzelak 5 (Goncalves 69min, 6), Buaben 5 (Randall 62min, 5), Smith 5, Cowie 5, Djoum 7, Moore 7, Lafferty 5 (Sammon 71min, 5) Unused Substitutes: Souttar, Nowak, Martin, Noring