Scottish Premiership LIVE: Celtic v Hearts, Falkirk v Rangers, Hibs v Motherwell – radio, updates, team news, scores, analysis, stats
A win for Celtic in this match will see them crowned Scottish champions for the 56th time – overtaking Rangers (55) for the most of any side. Indeed, Celtic have won the title in 13 of the last 14 seasons, the only exception being 2020-21, when Rangers won it.
Should Heart of Midlothian avoid defeat in this match, they will be confirmed as champions. It would be their fifth Scottish top-flight title, the most of any non-Old Firm (Celtic/Rangers) club, and their first since 1959-60. Indeed, Hearts would be the first non-Old Firm side to be crowned champions of Scotland since Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen in 1984-85, and would end a run of 40 successive titles won by either Celtic or Rangers in the process.
Having already beaten Rangers three times and Celtic twice in 2025-26, Hearts could become the first side in Scottish football history to win six games against the two Old Firm clubs in a single league season.
Celtic are winless in their three league meetings with Heart of Midlothian this season (D1 L2); the last sides other than Old Firm rivals Rangers that the Hoops failed to beat in a league campaign were both Hearts and Motherwell in 1994-95.
Including the curtailed 2019-20 campaign, Celtic have only lost their final league game in one of the last 18 seasons (W14 D3), a 0-1 defeat to Aberdeen in 2017-18. In this time, they have played Hearts five times on MD38, winning the last four (D1).
After their 1-0 win over Kilmarnock last season, Hearts could win their final match in back-to-back top-flight campaigns for the first time since 2002-03/2003-04 against Dundee and Motherwell respectively.
Celtic have won each of their last six Scottish Premiership matches – their longest run of the season, while no side has yet won seven in a row in the competition in 2025-26. Should Celtic win here, seven wins would be their longest streak to finish a league season with since 2009-10, when they won their final eight in a row – the last of which was against Hearts.
The top four players in the Scottish Premiership this season for points won via their goals are Celtic duo Daizen Maeda (16) and Benjamin Nygren (13), and Hearts pair Lawrence Shankland (12) and Cláudio Braga (12). Indeed, only Tawanda Maswanhise has scored more goals overall (17) than all four of those players in the competition in 2025-26 (Nygren 16, Shankland 15, Braga 14, Maeda 13).
