Earlier this week, Tony Bloom reaffirmed his vision for Hearts and spoke of his belief that they will be crowned champions of Scotland within the next ten years.

It made for some nice soundbites, as was the case when Bloom laid out the same blueprint after his involvement as a Hearts investor started just over a year ago.

Yet, in each of Bloom’s first two seasons at the club, it has been here at Celtic Park where Hearts have seen their title ambitions crushed.

The circumstances may have been different. What happened towards the end of last season was a travesty, given some of the refereeing calls that went against them. The final-day debacle against Celtic and subsequent pitch invasion will forever be a stain on Scottish football.

But the two outcomes have ultimately been the same; Hearts’ title dream died here in the east end of Glasgow last May, and it died here once again yesterday.

There will be some who view that as a premature assessment in mid-October. Wouter Vrancken’s side are eight points behind Celtic and four behind Rangers with almost 30 games still to play.

But the damage inflicted here felt too significant, the flaws exposed in this team too glaring, and the prospect of this team being title contenders felt too fanciful for even the most ardent of Hearts fans.

By quite a distance, this was the worst performance Hearts have delivered during Bloom’s involvement with the club.

They were absolutely annihilated by a Celtic side who themselves came into this with fragile confidence after being dismantled by Benfica in the Europa League on Thursday night.

After conceding twice from set-plays in the opening ten minutes, Hearts completely and utterly capitulated. It was a horror show. On the touchline, Vrancken did nothing to change the flow of the match.

There was a naivety to how his team set up here. It was as if Hearts arrived at Parkhead and believed they were better than they actually are.

Like they expected to turn up and roll Celtic over on account of how good they have been in attack at times this season under Vrancken.

But, defensively, they were appalling. Teams of genuine substance do not capitulate like this. Hearts were 5-1 down by half-time – and they were lucky it wasn’t seven or eight.

Any notion of this team winning the title this season is for the birds. So open, so weak, so naïve; this defeat was entirely on Vrancken.

As a man who made part of his fortune as a professional poker player, Bloom will already recognise that this season is a busted flush.

Indeed, the same could have been said of Martin O’Neill and Celtic had they lost this match. Yet, credit where it’s due, O’Neill rallied his players and delivered a statement result.

For the first time this season, Celtic actually turned up and delivered a big performance in a match of genuine consequence.

The pressure on O’Neill will lift for now. He dropped Kasper Hogh yesterday and the decision was vindicated entirely by Celtic turning in their most stylish performance of the season.

The challenge now will be to sustain this in the Europa League clash here with Celta Vigo on Thursday night as Celtic look to breathe some life into their European season.

On the back of the 4-1 hammering against Benfica in Lisbon on Thursday night, O’Neill opted to freshen things up by making four changes to his Celtic team. The most eye-catching saw Hogh dropped to the bench, with Camilo Duran operating as the central striker and Callum Osmand and Haissem Hassan on the wings.

O’Neill had spoken on Thursday night about Hogh’s form and the fact that the £11million club-record signing has failed to score in over two months.

Insisting he still has faith that Hogh will eventually come good and score over 20 goals this season, the Celtic boss explained that the Danish international striker ‘had to earn the right’ to be in the team.

The other changes saw Liam Scales and Benjamin Nygren come into the team, with Auston Trusty and Oliver Sorensen dropping to the bench.

Hearts drew 1-1 against Nordsjaelland on Thursday night and boss Wouter Vrancken made three changes for this trip to Parkhead. Defenders Stephen Kingsley and Jordi Altena started along with midfielder Sabri Guendouz, with Harry Milne, James Wilson and Christian Borchgrevink dropping out.

Hearts actually started the match reasonably well and looked like they were on the front foot in the opening five minutes or so. But the whole thing fell apart in double-quick time. The concession of two goals from set-plays saw them go 2-0 down after only ten minutes.

First, a Mika Baur corner was flicked on by Scales and Kieran Tierney had the simple task of heading in from point-blank range.

The lead was doubled when Nygren wriggled free and converted from another Baur corner. From Hearts’ point of view, the defending was criminal.

To score twice from corners was certainly a feather in the cap of Celtic’s new set-piece coach Ross Grant, who joined the club from Hearts back in the summer.

Yet, so deplorable was the defending from Hearts, it hardly required the most creative set-piece routines in Grant’s playbook. Rather, it was all painfully simple.

For all that they have won plaudits for an exciting style of football going forward, defensive frailties are now rapidly becoming a theme of Hearts’ season under Vrancken.

As was the case when they were ripped to shreds by Benfica in Lisbon a couple of months ago, this was another example of a team who don’t know how to stop the bleeding once it starts.

Back in the side after an injury lay-off, Osmand scored twice in little more than 60 seconds to put Celtic 4-0 up after 38 minutes, one of which was a really classy finish with his right foot.

It was Osmand who scored deep into stoppage-time here to clinch the title when the teams met here on the final day of last season, a goal which sparked a mass pitch invasion.

Hearts pulled a goal back when Laurent Mendy fired low into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, but any notion of a comeback was swiftly extinguished.

Baur danced through a couple of feeble efforts at tackles from Hearts players and dinked the ball over Reus, before Kingsley’s attempted clearance cannoned off Jamie McCart and rolled back into the net.

This was utter humiliation for Hearts fans, many of whom had seen enough. With their team 5-1 down at half-time, some of them headed for the exits.

Truthfully, they were lucky it was only five. It could easily have been seven or eight in the first half alone. Celtic were utterly rampant.

It took a last-ditch block from McCart to deny Nygren after a smart interception from Tierney sparked a rapid Celtic counter-attack.

A jinking run from Hassan saw the Egyptian winger hit the post, with Nygren also forcing a good save from Reus.

On days like this, you wonder what neutral observers must make of Scottish football. Celtic have been a laughing stock in Europe this season, yet this is what they do to their domestic rivals.

Duran made it 6-1 early in the second half when he swept a clinical left-foot finish low past Reus. There was still effectively a full half of football to play but Hearts were desperate for the final whistle.

Celtic made it 7-1 when Nygren netted his second goal of the game with just under ten minutes remaining.

A day of complete and utter humiliation for Hearts and Vrancken. The scars from this defeat may take quite some time to heal.

Celtic (4-3-3): Sinisalo 7; Donovan 7.5, Murray 7, Scales 7, Tierney 7.5 (Emenalo 60); McGregor 7 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 60), Baur 8, Nygren 8; Hassan 8.5 (Forrest 70), Osmand 8 (Jota 46), DURAN 8.5 (Hogh 60). Booked: Jota, Baur, Donovan. Manager: Martin O’Neill 8.

Hearts (4-2-3-1): Reus 6; Altena 2, McCart 2, Fagan-Walcott 1, Kingsley 3; McEntee 3 (Magnusson 46), Mendy 5; McPake 6 (Kerjota 54), Guendouz 5 (Wilson 84), Miller 5 (Mato 54); Braga 4 (Ba-Sy 71). Booked: Miller. Manager: Wouter Vrancken 1.

Referee: David Dickinson.

Attendance: N/A.