Hearts' dream start to the season continued with an exhilarating 3-1 win over beleaguered champions Celtic that launched them eight points clear at the top of the William Hill Premiership.
All eyes were on Derek McInnes’ Jambos to see if they could handle the growing expectations and pressure of having the opportunity to open up the type of lead never previously enjoyed by any side outside Glasgow during the past four decades of Old Firm dominance.
And Hearts – with minority investor Tony Bloom watching from the stand – duly delivered with a statement victory over Brendan Rodgers’ injury-hit, misfiring Hoops side.
The hosts took the lead through an early Dane Murray own goal and then overcame the swift concession of an equaliser, scored by Callum McGregor, to claim a jubilantly celebrated victory through goals from Alexandros Kyziridis and Lawrence Shankland early in the second half.
Hearts – buoyed by a five-game winning streak – sent out the same starting XI for a fifth game running.
Celtic were forced into three changes from Thursday’s Europa League win over Sturm Graz. Injured trio Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kelechi Iheanacho were replaced by the relatively unproven trio of Colby Donovan, Murray and Johnny Kenny, who had made just 10 previous starts for the Hoops first-team between them.
McInnes had urged the Hearts support to make Tynecastle as "hostile and noisy as possible" and he would have been delighted with the way his side started amid a pumped-up atmosphere.
With Celtic looking rattled in the opening exchanges, the hosts made their early superiority count in the eighth minute.
Stephen Kingsley’s cross from the left was nodded back in by Shankland for Claudio Braga, whose header was clawed on to the post by Kasper Schmeichel.
The ball broke to Shankland on the right of the six-yard box and the Hearts captain drove it across goal where Murray, just a yard out, sliced his attempted clearance into his own net.
The hosts were unable to turn the screw, however, and Celtic levelled with a well-worked goal four minutes later. Kieran Tierney overlapped Sebastian Tounekti in the box and and his low delivery was guided into the bottom corner by McGregor from just outside the six-yard box.
Having stemmed the early flow, the champions started to enjoy a period of control, although they were fortunate to avoid falling behind again just after the half hour when Murray’s clearance ricocheted off team-mate Donovan and ran just wide of Schmeichel’s left-hand post.
Hearts goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow had to make a big save in the 38th minute to deny Benjamin Nygren from close range.
But the hosts regained the initiative in the 52nd minute when Kyziridis cut in from the left, evaded Nygren and drilled a low right-footed shot from the edge of the box beyond Schmeichel, who was furious at the lack of pressure on the ball.
Just two minutes later, Hearts were presented with a chance to stretch their lead when they were awarded a penalty after Braga ran on to a Shankland pass and was bundled over in the box by Murray.
Shankland kept his cool to score as buoyant Hearts closed out victory in impressive fashion, fuelling belief that the long-running Glasgow stranglehold on the Scottish title could be nearing an end.
