Steven Naismith makes questionable claim about Celtic player

With the Rangers beginning their Philippe Clement era with a 4-0 win over Hibernian, Celtic needed to make a statement themselves. That is exactly what they did as well, winning 4-1 away at Tynecastle Park against Hearts. Kyogo, Matt O’Riley, Daizen Maeda and Tomoki Iwata were on the scoresheet for Brendan Rodgers’ side on the day.

An away game against Hearts is always a tough test for any team. Celtic passed it with flying colours though.

On the other hand, the result leaves Hearts with a less than impressive 11 points from nine games. They do sit at a decent 4th but the results have not been great till now and questions are already being raised about Steven Naismith.

The Hearts manager on the other hand was not happy with the penalty kick that his side conceded against Celtic and he believes that Kyogo knew what he was doing. As reported by The Scottish Sun, he said while speaking on BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound:

"“For me it’s not a penalty. It’s one that the referee has made a call, but we’re meant to be eradicating these decisions from the game.“Every week, we’re still talking about ‘is it a penalty, is it not?’“It’s clearly not. Kyogo knows what he’s doing, he’s being intelligent.“If anything, Kyogo blocks Alex getting to the ball.”"

Naismith makes questionable claim about Celtic player

Of course, those are not comments that will make Celtic fans very happy. But they will be delighted with the result on the day.

Celtic are starting to pick up some serious momentum right now. Yes, their results in Europe have been less than satisfactory. But when it comes to the league, they have been pretty much perfect after their early struggles in the season.

Now, it is about continuing on this path and producing results on a constant basis. They must keep the seven-point gap with the Rangers.

One would expect the Rangers to enjoy a new manager bounce as well following the arrival of Clement. They did so with Beale as well. But Ange Postecoglou’s side was able to match them step for step. Now, Rodgers’ must do the same.