Sometimes football is blissfully simple. Celtic’s resource, on and off the field, is vastly superior to any other club in Scotland’s top flight. One second-half move at Tynecastle demonstrated that; Leigh Griffiths feeding Scott Sinclair to allow the debutant to mark his Celtic arrival with the winning goal against Heart of Midlothian. If Griffiths is well known as one of Scotland’s blue-chip players. Sinclair has been brought north with the clear aim of becoming one. So far, so good.

Sinclair’s move to Celtic had been so widely trailed – the club had four bids rejected by Aston Villa before a deal was concluded for the 27-year-old over the weekend – that he would not have been short of status even before this key Edinburgh intervention. That the former Manchester City man provided it justified the deep desire of Brendan Rodgers to coax Sinclair north, both in a bid to kickstart the player’s career and afford Celtic extra quality in wide attacking areas. Sinclair notched his first goal since 28 October 2015, sending the Celtic support into such raptures that a few of them ended up in handcuffs, having taken their celebrations on to the field of play.

“No one has really seen the best of Scott and I think people have maybe forgotten how good he is,” Rodgers said.

“This is a guy who scored a hat-trick in a play‑off final under huge pressure in front of 90,000 people. He scored 27 goals for me in one season at Swansea when we were promoted. I had him at Chelsea when he was 16. I looked to get him here because I think he can have a huge impact … He is still young, fresh and super fast.

“He scored an outstanding goal. He showed that huge determination to join in the play that you see from top players. I couldn’t have asked any more from him; Scott only had three hours sleep on Friday before travelling up here.”

For Rodgers, this marked a winning start to his maiden Scottish Premiership campaign. Celtic have gone since 1997 without being defeated on their opening domestic day. There have been far more free-flowing and dominant performances than this during the intervening 19 years, with Hearts unfortunate not to take a point from a gripping if attritional clash.

Perhaps even an element of the home support, who have been on something of a downer since a wounding European exit to opposition from Malta, were surprised by how tight this fixture proved to be.

Rodgers is due credit. With the match seemingly destined for a draw, he withdrew one of his centre-backs, Eoghan O’Connell, with Tom Rogic replacing him. That switch to 3-5-2 not only highlighted Rodgers’s unwillingness to accept a point, it was sufficient to outsmart the hosts.

“How the players adapted to that change was terrific,” Rodgers said. The winner arrived from a brisk counterattack, Griffiths scampering down the left flank before laying the ball on a plate for Sinclair.

An early Celtic lead had arrived via the boot of James Forrest, who capitalised on dismal Hearts defending to curl the ball beyond Jack Hamilton. Hearts claimed the goal should not have stood, with Stuart Armstrong in an offside position in front of Hamilton when Forrest took aim.

If Hearts were unlucky to be behind at that juncture, they enjoyed fortune of their own before half-time. Fortune triggered by the antics of Jamie Walker, that is. Walker clearly was not fouled by Kieran Tierney inside the visiting penalty area but threw himself to the ground as if an infringement had occurred, the actions sufficient to deceive the referee, John Beaton.

The main official endured an erratic afternoon – flashing 11 yellow cards in what was hardly a dirty game – but sympathy towards him was merited in this instance.

Walker readily dusted himself down before slotting a spot-kick low to Craig Gordon’s left. Later, Rodgers defended Beaton but the Celtic captain, Scott Brown, was less measured. “It was a dive, cheat, what else can you say?” Brown said. “The wee guy has conned the ref.” The Celtic player made his thoughts clear in person to Walker as the pair completed post-game media duties.

Rodgers took an alternative tone. “I am not going to kill the referee,” the Northern Irishman said. “He made a mistake; he admitted that and apologised.”

Walker insisted that he “felt contact so went down”. Thankfully, at least, this incident was not ultimately decisive.

Hearts believed that they had another penalty due in the second period as Kolo Touré clashed with Robbie Muirhead. Before that, Moussa Dembélé came within a brilliant John Souttar block of edging Rodgers’s men back in front. It took Sinclair’s arrival, with assistance from Griffiths, to breach that maroon resistance.