From the third minute onwards there was only going to be one winner at Tynecastle.
Hearts fans largely declined the offer to take up the tickets that were denied to the Celtic support, those in the Roseburn Stand were given a perfect view of the opening goal which was of a quality unlikely to be matched again this season on Gorgie Road.
On his debut last month away to Feyenoord Luis Palma looked a little lost and distant, getting upto speed he flighted through the perfect ball which Matt O’Riley struck perfectly on the volley to send Celtic in front.
Midway through the first half O’Riley and Reo Hatate combined down the left with Daizen Maeda bundling the ball home from inside the six yard box. Leading 2-0 it was a case of how many as the Hearts fans that turned up began to wish that they hadn’t.
Hatate missed a penalty soon after the restart but a deft touch sent Palma racing down the left with Kyogo Furuhashi on the end of his cross to put Celtic 3-0 in front.
Sloppiness from Maeda gifted Lawrence Shankland a consolation strike but there was nothing lazy about the way Tomoki Iwata slammed home his first Celtic goal to secure three more points on the road, maintaining Brendan Rodgers’ 100% away record since returning to Scottish football.
Another AWAY fixture successfully negotiated…Things are not going well for the Computer programmer….Oh dear !!