SNS GroupLeague leaders Celtic have kept up their strong start to the season with a comfortable victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.
The Scottish champions ran out 4-1 winners thanks to goals from Matt O’Riley, Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi and Tomoki Iwata in Edinburgh on Sunday.
Lawrence Shankland gave the crowd something to cheer about but his second half consolation proved to little too late for the home side.
Brendan Rodgers’ side even had time to miss a penalty early in the second-half as they retained their seven point lead at the top of the Premiership.
There were only 576 visiting fans at the game but it never made much difference to the Hoops who dominated large periods of the game and were deserving winners.
Celtic took an early lead when the recently crowned payer of the month O’Riley continued his hot streak with his sixth league goal of the season.
The Denmark international met an exquisite pass from Luis Palma and turned a close-range volley past newly capped Scotland goalkeeper Zander Clark.
Hearts then made a push for an equaliser and Joe Hart was forced to save a shot from Vargas who had attempt from an awkward angle after using his pace to past Scales.
Maeda then doubled the lead halfway through the first 45 when he bundled the ball over the line following good link-up play from O’Riley and Hatate.
Celtic had a to put the game to bed when they were awarded a penalty in the first minute of the second-half, but Hatate’s effort hit the post.
Five minutes later it was 3-0 when Kyogo fired past Clark from close-range to all but seal the three points for the Glasgow side.
Lawrence Shankland got one back to throw Hearts a lifeline with around 25 minutes left on the clock when he curled a shot past Hart from outside the box.
But Tomoki Iwata restored Celtic’s commanding lead on the 80 minute mark with a thunderous effort off the bar and in that left Clark with no chance of keeping it out.
It is the Japanese midfielder’s first goal for the Hoops since joining just under a year ago.
The Scottish champions have now won away to the rest of last season’s top four in their first nine games with victories at Rangers, Aberdeen and Hearts as well as also securing three points at other tricky grounds including Motherwell and Livingston.
It’s the first time they have won all five away games since Brendan Rodgers’ first season in charge in the 2016/17 campaign.
They can complete the set next week when they travel to capital again to take on Hibs meaning they will have visited the home of all of last season’s top five in their first ten games.
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