Hearts will look to stretch their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to six points on Saturday night as they face a tricky trip to Fir Park to take on fourth-placed Motherwell.
Hearts regained their three-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table on Monday as they came from a goal down to defeat Rangers 2-1, effectively ending the Teddy Bears’ title hopes.
Coming from a goal down has been a feature of the Jambos’ matches in recent weeks, with them rescuing 10 points from losing positions in their last four matches (W3-D1-L0), including a derby success at Easter Road against nine-man Hibs.
However, that was Derek McInnes’s side’s first away success since the end of January, having taken just a solitary point from a possible 12 (W0-D1-L3).
Motherwell failed to build on their impressive 2-3 success at Ibrox against Rangers as they fell to a 1-0 defeat away at Falkirk last weekend.
Jens Berthel Askou’s visitors have now taken just four points from their last seven matches (W1-D1-L5), but they have still only lost twice at home all season (W10-D5-L2), with both of those defeats coming against Falkirk.
How the bookies view it: Tough one to call
The bookies are finding it hard to separate these two sides, with Hearts marginal favourites to record a fourth consecutive victory, with bet365 pricing an away success at 31/20.
Motherwell are 8/5 to claim just their second victory from their last eight Premiership outings, whilst the draw is 5/2.
Head to head: Six unbeaten for the Jam Tarts
Hearts are unbeaten in each of their previous six Premiership meetings with Motherwell (W3-D3-L0), including a 3-1 success at Tynecastle just last month.
However, the Jambos are winless on each of their past three visits to Fir Park (W0-D2-L1), including a goalless draw on their last visit at the end of November.
Players to watch: Braga to bag against the Steelmen again?
Claudio Braga has been an excellent acquisition from the Norwegian second tier last summer, scoring 14 goals and providing five assists for the Jambos in the Premiership this season.
The Portuguese attacker has scored three times against the Steelmen – with one of those coming in their most recent meeting at Tynecastle last month – and he is an appealing 10/11 at bet365 to Score or Assist.
Backed a player to find the net? Check our Goalscorer Betting guide to see how the markets work and where to find value.
Predicted line-ups:
Motherwell will be without the injured Zach Robinson and Eythor Bjorgolfsson, whilst Jordan McGhee is a doubt.
Hearts will be missing the injured Craig Gordon, Oisin McEntee, Caleb Nieuwenhof, Finlay Pollock, Tomas Magnusson and Ageu, whilst Harry Milne, Christian Borchgrevnik and Cammy Devlin are doubts.
Motherwell: Ward, Sparrow, McGinn, Welsh, O’Donnell, Fadinger, Watt, Just, Slattery, Longelo, Maswanhise
Hearts: Schwolow, Steinwender, Halkett, Findlay, Kyziridis, Leonard, Baningime, Kingsley, Shankland, Chesnokov, Braga
Anything else catch the eye?
This is probably a good time for Hearts to play Motherwell right now given their recent form, but the Jambos have been patchy away from home the last few months so I’m happy to swerve the WDW markets.
Over 2.5 Goals has landed in each of their last four Premiership outings, whilst five of Motherwell’s last seven have delivered three or more goals.
These two delivered four goals in their most recent meeting at Tynecastle last month in what was an open encounter, and I reckon we could see more goals in North Lanarkshire on Saturday night.
GambleAware