Having led the way for most of the season, the Jambos were pipped to the William Hill Premiership title in the most agonising fashion when Celtic scored two late goals in a 3-1 victory to overhaul them at the top on May 16.

Much has changed at Tynecastle since then, including the manager, but Vrancken is confident those players who do remain from last term will have no problem banishing any lingering negative emotions as they prepare to return to the scene of their darkest day on Sunday.

“I’m convinced the players will be in their heads in the game on Sunday and not in the past,” said Vrancken, who succeeded Derek McInnes a month after that dramatic title shootout.

“You cannot live in the past. This is sport, you have to move forward, and you have to look forward, and you have to take on the next one. I’m pretty convinced and confident that it will be like that.”

While Hearts’ supporters are still smarting over some contentious decisions from officials that went in Celtic’s favour in the closing days of last season’s title race, Vrancken expects his players simply to be fuelled by a desire to maintain their strong current form and keep themselves in the mix at the top end of the table.

“I hope the fire is there every game that we play, and not only because something happened in the past,” said the Belgian. “Like I said, you don’t want to look in the past too much because otherwise it’s negative energy, and we need positive energy.

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“This fire has to burn when you play every game, especially the top games, and if we can make a result there, we can do a good thing in the league.

“I’m looking forward to every game we play. You live for those top games, and you want to play those top games.

“That’s why you’re a top professional in sports. You want to perform on that level, and you want to have results on that level, and we will work hard for it.”

Both sides go into Sunday’s match on the back of European matches on Thursday. Hearts were held 1-1 at home to Nordsjaelland in their Conference League opener, while Celtic were defeated 4-1 by Benfica in the Europa League.

“It’s huge game after huge game for us this month,” said Vrancken, whose team go to Trabzonspor a few days after Celtic Park. “We had it (the heavy fixture load) already months ago, so we know what it is, taking care of your body and being ready for the next one.

“We have to be top level every time in energy and quality in what we want to show and see on the pitch.

“We have to take the confidence of our performance from the first 70 minutes (against Nordsjaelland) to the game on Sunday.”