A week may often be described as a long time in football, but for Celtic and their supporters, the past one must have seemed interminable. Disharmony reigns off the pitch, and yesterday, a team in disarray on it fell to defeat at Hearts through a stunning strike by Kyle Lafferty.

Taken in isolation, a loss at Tynecastle would hardly be cause for crisis talk. It is one of the most difficult venues in Scottish football, and after all, Celtic lost 4-0 here last season and still managed to win the title at a canter.

But even though this is only the second game of the league season, the context in which the loss came after a fractious week for Celtic was impossible to ignore.

The clouds had been gathering ahead of the visit to Edinburgh, and as they amassed overhead at Tynecastle, you sensed that a storm was coming in the direction of the Scottish champions. From a position of complete dominance in Scottish football, Celtic have somehow contrived to give off the air of a club in chaos in the last few days.

Brendan Rodgers has been directing his annoyance at the Celtic board publicly and frequently for their failure to back him in the transfer market, but nowhere was the message coming across louder or clearer than on the teamsheet. Changes were always likely with Celtic’s crucial second-leg of their Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens looming large on Tuesday evening, but there was no getting away from the fact that the visitors looked well below strength for what is traditionally one of the toughest away fixtures on the calendar.

Some of those changes, you could easily get away with. Jozo Simunovic for Kris Ajer, for example. But Eboue Kouassi for well, just about anyone on this evidence, would prove a significant downgrade to the Celtic midfield.

“Three games in seven days at this stage of the season is very, very tough,” Rodgers reasoned after the game. “However it is not an excuse, we have to be able to cope.

“With the resources that we have we freshened up the attacking area of the team. We made a change at centre half, Jozo if he is going to play on Tuesday he will need some sort of games with Kris Ajer out. So, we had enough freshness but didn’t quite create enough.

“We had good players on the field and we are disappointed collectively that we didn’t get the result.”

Hearts, as manager Craig Levein admitted post-match, could smell blood.

“He did make changes and it was another thing along with our form and recent performances here against Celtic, it was enough positive thoughts for us to go into the game absolutely believing we had a chance of winning,” said Levein.

His men were pressing high early on and dominating territory, but it was a glorious exchange between Callum McGregor and Scott Sinclair that created the best opportunity at the other end, the winger eventually blasting wide from a tight angle.

The pace of the game was proving too much for Kouassi, who was being dominated by the impressive Peter Haring. He was caught on the ball to give Lafferty the chance of a crack at goal, but Gordon fielded the shot.

Leigh Griffiths broke out of the midfield battle-royale to dance across the edge of the area past several lunging challenges before reversing the ball back beyond Zdenek Zlamal, only for Michael Smith to tuck in and hack clear off the Hearts goalline.

A couple of sly kicks from Steven Naismith off the ball characterised the cynical nature of Hearts’ approach to the task at hand, but just as it seemed as though Celtic were coming to terms with the physical battle and exerting a measure of control on the game, Hearts stunned them with a peach of a sucker punch to hit the front.

The Celtic defence had struggled all day to deal with the strength and power of the outstanding Uche Ikpeazu, and the hulking striker shrugged off Kieran Tierney to clip the ball back into the path of the arriving Lafferty at the edge of the box who thumped home on the volley low past Gordon from 18 yards.

Celtic manager Rodgers sent for the cavalry, with Odsonne Edouard replacing Griffiths and James Forrest replacing Hayes, and then eventually Kouassi’s day was up with Tom Rogic entering the fray with 20 minutes left.

The big Australian almost made a difference immediately, seizing upon a loose ball at the edge of the area before firing a curling effort inches wide, but there was to be no silver lining to a gloomy week for the champions.

There is nary a cloud in the Hearts sky though, as their manager basked in the warmth of a second win on the bounce.

“We edged the match,” said Levein. “We were focused, we were fit, we lasted right to the end.

“Right now I just want to enjoy winning against Celtic because its not an easy thing to do.”