Chris Sutton still has Hearts favourites in the title race with seven games to go, which won’t go down well with plenty of Celtic fans. The gap at the top is tight and it doesn’t take much for things to swing.
Hearts are still hanging in there. The defeat to Kilmarnock wasn’t great, but it hasn’t knocked them out of it. They’re close enough that a short run of wins puts them right back in the middle of things.
That’s why Sutton is sticking with them. He thinks they’ve got enough to stay involved, especially if a couple of key players come back at the right time.
He said: (BBC 505), “I said, I’m going to stick with Hearts, I’m going to stick with Hearts.
“They had their blip against Kilmarnock at the weekend. I mean, they can lose to Kilmarnock.
“Hearts didn’t start the game particularly well.
“The reason I’m going to stick with Hearts is my sources are telling me Shankland’s not far away, Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin. And they’ve missed Shankland, especially at the top end of the pitch.
“And I think everybody will beat everybody else from now until the end of the season, especially after the split. I just think that’s, that’s going to happen. If you look at the goal difference with the, I mean, I think Motherwell are out of it now.
“Celtic beat them at the weekend and then they lost to Dundee the previous week. But the goal difference is all, all pretty tight. So I’m going to say, yeah, still Hearts.”
Shankland is a big part of it. Hearts haven’t really had that presence up front without him. He scores, but he also gives them something to play into and brings others into the game. It changes the whole feel of their attack.
Devlin coming back would help as well. He gives them energy in midfield and does the hard work off the ball. That makes a difference in games where they don’t have much of it.
For Celtic, that leaves very little margin. They can still take care of their own results, but they can’t count on others dropping points. Hearts staying close just adds another layer to it.
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