Celtic’s impressive start to the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership continued on Saturday with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win over Hearts at Parkhead.
The Hoops have now won all five of their matches in the top-flight without conceding a single goal, with new signing Kasper Schmeichel enjoying a dream start to his career in Glasgow.
Arne Engels opened the scoring from the penalty spot after a handball offence from Nicolas Kuhn’s cross, before Luke McCowan came off the bench to open his account for the club with a left-footed strike from distance.
Club-record signing Engels, who joined from Augsburg for £11m in the summer, enjoyed a terrific afternoon at Paradise, producing a fine performance.
Arne Engels’ performance against Hearts in numbers
The Belgian whiz was selected to make his full debut for Celtic alongside Reo Hatate and Callum McGregor in the middle of the park, as Paulo Bernardo and McCowan were left on the bench.
It turned out to be a masterstroke of a decision from Brendan Rodgers because Engels put in a sublime showing, with his work in and out of possession.
The 20-year-old star scored from the spot, hit the post, completed 87% of his attempted passes, and created one chance in his 80 minutes on the pitch, which shows that he was reliable on the ball, whilst offering a goal scoring and creative threat.
He also won six of his nine physical duels, including 100% (2/2) of his aerial contests, and made one block and one tackle to help to preserve the clean sheet for the Hoops.
Engels was not the only star of the show for the Scottish giants on Saturday, though, as central defender Cameron Carter-Vickers was also colossal for Rodgers.
Cameron Carter-Vickers’ performance against Hearts in numbers
The USA international has played every single minute of the club’s league campaign so far, which means that he has been integral to their incredible defensive record with his work at the heart of the defence.
Carter-Vickers, who was handed a match rating of 8/10 by GlasgowWorld’s Ben Banks, protected Schmeichel’s goal with a number of key interventions.
The central defender also provided a composed presence on the ball at the back, completing 89 of his 100 attempted passes and four of his six long pass attempts.
As you can see in the table above, Carter-Vickers won 78% of his duels, on the deck and in the air combined, throughout the match and made an impressive six interceptions – more than any other player on the pitch.
These statistics show that the former Tottenham Hotspur man was a colossus at the back as he helped to dominate the Hearts attackers, including reigning PFA Scotland Player of the Year Lawrence Shankland, to keep another clean sheet for Celtic.
The 26-year-old titan has won 69% of his duels in the Premiership so far this term and averaged 2.4 interceptions per game, which shows that this was an above-average performance by his usual standards.
