History-makers Hearts top at Christmas

Picture this. It's Christmas 1991, Queen are top of the singles charts with Bohemian Rhapsody - and Hearts sit atop the Scottish Premiership table.

That was the last time Hearts were peering down on the rest on 25 December and two years later Aberdeen became the last non-Old Firm team to hold that position.

Now, more than three decades later, Hearts are guaranteed to be number one on Christmas Day.

Celtic's 2-1 defeat at Dundee United on Wednesday night means Derek McInnes' side remain six points clear of the defending champions, who have played a game fewer.

Hearts have one game remaining before Christmas - and it's a humdinger as third-place and improving Rangers come to Tynecastle on Sunday.

Hearts have already won away to Celtic and Rangers this season for the first time in almost 40 years. Now they are bidding to rectify a record of no league wins over Rangers at home since January 2020.

What's more, if Hearts get the job done on Sunday, they'll become the first team to win four consecutive top-flight games against the two Old Firm clubs since Dundee in 1985.

To get to this point, Hearts have only lost one league game this season (a 1-0 defeat at Aberdeen in November) and have beaten nine of the 11 teams.

The only sides McInnes' men have failed to defeat are Motherwell, drawing against them twice, while they've only played St Mirren once and that was a 2-2 stalemate in Paisley.

Thirty four years ago, Queen remained top of the charts until 19 January - but McInnes will be hoping Hearts can last a lot longer than that.