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A big week in Scottish sport, which has included World Cup draws in football and rugby union, ends with the top two going head-to-head in the Premiership.
Only goal difference separates leaders Heart of Midlothian and reigning champions Celtic, who start life under a new manager.
Whereas Wilfried Nancy at first would have been expecting to take charge of a Celtic team needing refreshed after Brendan Rodgers' departure, the Frenchman's mindset will now need to turn to carrying on the good work of interim manager Martin O'Neill in the five weeks since.
It was a 3-1 defeat by Sunday's opponents, as Hearts enjoyed a sixth straight victory and inflicted a third loss in five for Celtic, that proved to be the final straw for Rodgers.
However, since his resignation the following day and the arrival of fellow Northern Irishman O'Neill as interim boss, there has been a steady change in fortunes.
The eight-point lead Hearts established that day to inspire hopes of a genuine title challenge from Edinburgh has been surrendered - and they risk ending the weekend three points behind champions who would also still have a game in hand.
O'Neill hands over a team who have lost once, away to Midtjylland in the Europa League, in eight outings since that ill-fated trip to the capital, winning their latest five.
Derek McInnes' leaders, meanwhile, have since then won only once in six.
In Hearts' defence, it should be pointed out that they have also only lost one of those.
However, a failure to score in their latest two away games shows where their recent problems lie as they head to Celtic Park, where they have also not found the net in three straight defeats since their last win there, by 2-0 in December 2023.
Five consecutive home wins since losing to Braga in the Europa League should give Nancy confidence that he can get his reign off to a table-topping high.
However, will he do so by continuing with O'Neill's winning formula, or immediately adopt the 3-4-3 formation he favoured leading Columbus Crew to top three places in the Major League Soccer standings in 2023 and 2024 before slipping to 12th this year?
Celtic head coach Wilfried Nancy: "My job is to be clear, to maximise our chance to win, and to find a way to be consistent, and obviously the outcome is to win trophies.
"They already did a good job before I came, so the idea is just to add a few nuances.
"I am a coach. The idea is to bring joy, with the way we're going to play and the results that we're going to have."
Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland: "We know the season is a bit of a marathon and we're right at the start of it. We had a good start and there's a long way to go, we can go and finish it really strong as well.
"You just need to sometimes take a wee step back, have a breath and just see where we're really at. Right now we're still in a good position.
"We're in this position because we've been doing well and we deserve to be where we are."
Daizen Maeda has been directly involved in 26 goals in the Scottish Premiership in 2025 (17 goals, nine assists), the most by a Celtic player in a single calendar year since Ryan Christie in 2019 (14 goals, 12 assists). The last to score or assist more in a year for the club was Leigh Griffiths in 2016 (25 goals, five assists).
After scoring at least twice in their first five away league games this season, Hearts have since drawn a blank in their past two on the road. They last went three successive away games without scoring in the Premiership in December 2019 (run of six).
Celtic have only lost one of their past nine home league games against opponents starting the day top of the table (W6 D2), going down 2-0 against Rangers in October 2020. These nine games include a 5-0 win over Hearts in November 2018.
Hearts have won three of their past seven league games against Celtic (L4), including their most recent in October (3-1). Hearts had only won three of their previous 37 league matches versus the Parkhead side before this (D2 L32).
Celtic have won 25 of their past 27 home league games against Hearts, the exceptions being a 0-0 draw in September 2015 and a 2-0 defeat in December 2023.
