Hearts v Celtic, Gogic and Aaskou in focus – Scottish Premiership picks

After encouraging results in the Europa League on Thursday, Celtic and Rangers are now back in the three-way battle for the Scottish title.

There are plenty of other discussion points in the four Saturday games, but Rangers host Dundee at the same time (15:00), and the obvious big one is Heart of Midlothian hosting the reigning champions on Sunday.

Hearts and Celtic have both been making a desperate effort to add players to their starting lineups at Tynecastle, which shows how crucial Sunday’s game is.

What is currently a three-horse race for the title could be the deciding factor, which is not surprising given the general consensus.

Given that they have lost one of their most important players, midfielder Cammy Devlin and captain Lawrence Shankland, to protracted waiting periods, it is doubtful for Hearts.

Hearts paid a fee to facilitate Rogers Mato’s arrival from North Macedonian leaders Vardar, but it’s uncertain whether the paperwork will be finished before the Ugandan international faces Celtic.

After Forest Green Rovers turned down an offer for their captain, Laurent Mendy, they might have better luck with a midfielder because former Brighton &amp midfielder Marc Leonard is reportedly set to join Birmingham City on loan.

Meanwhile, Celtic have filled their striker void thanks to the arrival of Czech Republic international Tomas Cvancara on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach on Thursday, which was made more appropriate by Johnny Kenny’s injury-related draw in Bologna.

After Reo Hatate was dismissed, Celtic’s capacity for recovery will be tested by having to play for almost an hour with 10 men on Thursday in Bologna, as will their 2-0 half-time lead.

Hearts will be hoping to recover from their surprise penalty shootout defeat at home to Falkirk last weekend.

That put an all-time streak of 12 home games without defeat this year to an end, but Derek McInnes’ side still leads the league by six points, trailing only Celtic and Rangers.

With a win on Sunday, Hearts will become the first Hearts team to defeat Celtic three times in a single league game, which will give answers to questions about their viability given their injury problems.

In three straight league games since Aberdeen in 1990, they would become the first team to defeat Celtic in addition to Rangers.

However, after Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy’s exits, Celtic are back on track after winning all seven of their league games.

Amazingly, however, Celtic have lost all five of their last five home league games against teams that started the day with Hearts, both in August 2018 and last October.

David Martindale’s anger was amplified by Alex Gogic, who was angry that VAR did not respond to what he thought was a flagrant foul on Joshua Brenet as the visitors’ late equalizer was headed by the St Mirren utility man.

Given that pushing, shoving, and blocking are permitted in essentially every game these days, it’s up for debate whether or not it was a foul, but it’s undeniable that the goal once again highlighted the Cypriot’s value to manager Stephen Robinson.

You can always count on him to make a shift wherever he is needed, and he frequently proves that he is their key performer. He has been used in central defence and a midfield holding role at times.

He will be making his 250th Premiership appearance, having previously played for Hamilton Academical, Hibernian, and now St. Mirren, on Saturday at Tannadice.

Gogic will be the only non-British or Irish player to reach that mark since 2013-2014 when the Premiership was first established.

You could argue that former Hibs, St. Johnstone, and Dundee United midfielder David Wotherspoon, who notched 295 despite representing Canada, is only denied the first due to a technicality.

The Gogic has scored 12 goals so far this season, and Tuesday’s goal could prove to be the most valuable of those since Hibs moved on from Hibs.

Martindale’s bottom-placed side would have moved to within five points of third-bottom St Mirren and dragged them into a three-way race to avoid automatic relegation if Livingston had held on for what would have been a deserved victory.

The point eliminated Kilmarnock, who are currently in the play-off spot, by five points, which was also significant.

Even though St Mirren has won six league games, it will still have sounded like a victory over Saturday’s penalty shootout Scottish Cup triumph.

In the seven months since taking over as Motherwell manager, Jens Berthel Askou has quickly gone from being a shadow of a quantity to being hailed as Scotland’s tactical genius.

The 43-year-old Dane has been linked with the vacant position at Aberdeen and even the Celtic hotseat once Martin O’Neill’s most recent interim spell in charge ends this summer.

Fans of the Scottish champions may demand a more well-known name, but Askou himself might not be interested in a move to the Dons because they are currently fourth in the table and have left their wealthier foes at four and twelve points behind.

While his tenures as head of Vendsyssel, Torshavn, Horsens, and IFK Gothenburg were largely unfulfilled, he also appears to be the kind of person who would view Motherwell as a project that has only just begun, and one that he hopes will see bear even more rewards.

However, you can be certain that his development, which began six months after he left his position as Copenhagen assistant, is taking notice of other clubs.

Initial impressions were initially attracted to the exciting, free-flowing football, but now that the results are in place, and a league title lead under Robinson led them to third in 2019-20 appears to be within their means.

He will be confident of regaining control of his side after Kilmarnock’s visit on Saturday given that they have only lost once in 13 games, have won five in a row at home, and have won five in a row there without conceding a goal.