The media in Scotland are getting really excited at the prospect of Hearts challenging Celtic for the Scottish Premiership season.
Ever since Tony Bloom claimed Hearts could beat Celtic to the title, the Edinburgh side have continued an impressive unbeaten start to their league campaign.
Celtic’s draw with Hibs at the weekend allowed Hearts to go two points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
And speaking about the possible challenge from Hearts, Celtic midfielder Luke McCowan sent the capital club a brutal message.
Luke McCowan is not ‘worrying’ about Hearts challenging Celtic
With just six games gone, Hearts are in a good place. For Celtic however, Brendan Rodgers and his team have seen this movie before and it’s one that certainly doesn’t faze McCowan.
McCowan told the Daily Record, “We’re not eyeballing Hearts and worrying about them or anything like that. It’s more worrying about ourselves.
“It’s making sure that we’re at it. That’s always been the way Celtic play. It’s about we come first and we make sure that we’re doing the things that we’re good at throughout the season.
“If we keep up what we’re doing, it won’t matter what Hearts do. It’s about the levels of performance Celtic put in. “It’s the same every season, isn’t it? There’s always a team that pushes us.
“It’s always the question. Last year it was Aberdeen, they started like a house on fire. Hearts as well have started like a house on fire, performing well.
“It’s so early, there’s so many games to play. If we keep that performance level that we did on Saturday, we’ll come away with the three points more often than not.”
Very bullish from the Celtic star but McCowan doesn’t stop there.
Hearts told ‘it doesn’t matter’ where they are to Celtic in the league table right now
While a two-point lead at this stage of the season is surprising to see from Hearts, McCowan tells the Edinburgh club not to get too ahead of themselves.
McCowan continued, “It doesn’t matter if there’s one point in it or ten or more. It’s about putting that level of expectation on yourself.
“It won’t matter if Hearts are there or not. It’s about us. It’s a level of expectation at this club. You need to put that pressure on yourself and you need to accept that pressure of league champions.
“You need to go and show why you won the league before. But knowing that winning it the year before means absolutely nothing. It’s about pushing on and pushing on and then that throughout the full season.”
Very brutal from McCowan and fans will be hoping that his confidence and assertion will rub off on the players ahead of this week.
Because if fans are honest with themselves, they will admit that Celtic are nowhere near the team they were last season when Aberdeen put the title pressure on.
And if they drop any more points like they did at home against Hibs last weekend, Celtic will start to care what Hearts are doing as the season carries on.
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