Sunday 7th October 1230hrs Rangers v Hearts Football – Scotland – SPFL Premiership The big game in Scotland this weekend takes place at Ibrox and it involves the league leaders. It’s been a while since we could say that about a game that doesn’t feature Celtic but the surprise package of the season, Hearts, head to Glasgow looking to cement their place at the top of the table and send out a message that their title challenge should be taking seriously. Rangers have excelled in Europe under Steven Gerrard but they’ve struggled for consistency in the league and will be looking to make up for lost points with a win at home. Continue reading for a match preview of Rangers against Hearts and a selected best betting tip.
Depending on which way you look at it, Rangers have come a long way in a short space of time under Gerrard who has assembled virtually a whole new team in the space of three months. They have made it through four round of qualifiers to make it through to the group stage of the Europa League and picked up an excellent point away to Villareal in the same competition. On the other hand, however, the Ibrox club are eight points off top spot and failed to win any of their four away games in the league, drawing with Aberdeen and Motherwell and losing to rivals Celtic and Livingston, most recently. Gerrard was fuming with his team’s performance and their attacking play in particularly In the defeat to Livi and will be demanding much better when Hearts come to visit on Sunday. At the time of writing Rangers were drawing at home to Rapid Vienna in the Europa League but the Premiership is their bread and butter and they have to string a run of wins together in order to climb the table, and a win over the league leaders would certainly aid with that.
Hearts have take the Scottish Premiership by storm this season and deservedly sit top of the pack having played the first seven games unbeaten. The Tynecastle club were extremely disappointed with their league campaign last season and manager Craig Levein has completely turned over the squad as he looked for a reaction. He’s certainly got that in the opening months with his team winning six of their first seven including a home win over champions Celtic back in August. There’s an awful long way to go, of course, and Sunday will be another test of their credentials but no matter what happens this weekend Hearts will go into the international break top of the table and that’s an indication of how much better they have been than the rest of the league. Levein’s teams tend to always be hard to beat and strong defensively – and this group are both those as evidenced by having conceded the fewest amount of goals in the league but they’re a much more dynamic team going forward this term with only Rangers scoring more goals. At the time it looked to be a blow when losing Kyle Lafferty to their weekend opponents shortly before the transfer window closed but they’ve actually improved going forward since Lafferty’s departure.
Rangers v Hearts Betting Tip
Although Rangers have struggled in the league overall, they have a 100% record at Ibrox in the league defeating St Mirren, Dundee and St Johnstone. They’ve barely had to break sweat against any of their opponents and the difference in pace and intensity in comparison to performances on their travels have been apparent. The visitors have been strong on their travels win all three of their away games in the league winning at Hamilton impressively on the opening day before two 1-0 wins at Kilmarnock and Motherwell. It may not look overly strong form but with other teams struggling away from home those wins have been crucial and show that Hearts still retain a steely resolve despite their more attacking system.
There’s a number of potential stories in this one including an away win seeing Hearts go 11 points clear of Rangers going into the international break as well as Lafferty facing off against a club he finished top scorer for last season. It’s also going to be interesting to see how Levein approaches this game. So often he’s set his teams up not to lose when playing in Glasgow only to return with very little and he must feel emboldened to be more attacking considering his team’s success thus far. Should Hearts play two up to as they have been doing then they will stand a chance of getting a result. Rangers are coming off the back of a tough European fixture and it’s a quick turnaround. Hearts have the defensive capabilities to frustrate their opponents and I think the draw is the most likely outcome in this one.
Selection: Draw 16/5 @ William Hill
