In the coming days no less than fourteen of Celtic’s first team stars will return to Lennoxtown.

Each has been off representing their respective nations on the international stage, and though there’s been mixed fortunes for some, the main thing will be getting the players back fit and healthy ahead of a tough run of fixtures.

The first of those is a trip to Tynecastle where we’ll play fourth placed Hearts on Sunday afternoon.

Whilst always a difficult place to go the Bhoys should be in confident mood given their recent domestic form, whilst Brendan Rodgers has his own happy memories of a ground where he picked up three points in his first competitive fixture as Celtic boss way back in August 2016.

Following that one we head into Matchday Three of this season’s Champions League as Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid come calling at Celtic Park.

If we’re to have genuine aspirations of European football post-Christmas then you’d really have to think we’ll need to take some sort of positive result from this one.

Performances against Feyenoord and Lazio have been impressive in spells, but as yet our points tally still reads zero. The hard luck stories need to become a thing of the past if we’re to see any sort of progress on the big stage.

We’re then back to Edinburgh next weekend, where Hibs and new manager Nick Montgomery await. Will they still have that new manager bounce, or can we pick up another vital win in the capital?

100% AWAY FORM

Some may choose to bemoan the ‘randomness’ of Scottish Football’s supercomputer which produces such fixtures but the reality is we have to play these fixtures sometime across our thirty eight game programme, so it may as well be now.

With seven wins and one draw from our opening eight league fixtures there should be no fear amongst the Celtic squad ahead of these challenges.

With a 100% away record following trips to Pittodrie, Ibrox, Livingston and Fir Park so far, Brendan Rodgers’ side have shown a flair for picking up points on the road this season. Let’s see if we can add a double header in Edinburgh to that tally.

Six of the toughest away fixtures in the calendar from our opening ten league games?

It’s all part of the game and as supporters these are exactly the kind of games you look forward to.

Brendan Rodgers and his players will be feeling exactly the same.

Let the latest round of games begin.

Tune in to the latest episode of The Celtic Exchange Weekly where we cover The Early Season Report Card, Fixture Focus & Our International Bhoys.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, here at The Celtic Exchange website, or at the player below.