Speaking ahead of tonight's match, he said: “It’s one of the quirks of Scottish football that (double-headers) happen more often than it does in other leagues. We had it with Kilmarnock in the league and League Cup semi-final back-to-back.

“We treat every challenge separately because if you fall into the trap of lumping these two games together then I don’t think that works.

“We know league games are different to cup games and playing at home is different to playing away, particularly at Tynecastle.

'So even though we’re playing the same opposition we’re preparing for two different games but our focus is on this first game.'

“It will be a good challenge against a good side and since I’ve been here they’ve been consistently in third position.

“They’ve had European football which has helped their players in terms of growth. They have a stronger squad this year and with all of that, we know it will be a good contest for us.

“But our form has been consistent and we want to continue that.”

Celtic's form, as he rightfully states, has been exemplary this season domestically.

In fact, it’s not just condensed to this campaign, as it stretches back to the manager’s first games in charge, where the side remains undefeated at Paradise and have lost just once away from home since September 2021.

During that time, the goals tally has kept rising, and on Sunday the Hoops reached 250 under the Australian in all competitions – a clear sign to Ange Postecoglou of the strength of his group.

He added: “The goals are important, aside from the statistical element of it, it’s the kind of team we want to be.

'We want to be one that plays aggressive football and that scores a lot of goals.'

“It’s not easy to do and not just from the point of view of the dominance you have but in terms of the mindset.

“The weekend’s game is a good example where we are 3-1 up against 10 men and we could have seen the game out but there’s a strong desire within the group.

“That’s driven by competitiveness and guys coming on and wanting to score goals and play their part and that’s helped us score more goals.”

Manager: We face a good challenge against a strong Hearts