Scottish Premiership: Things to watch out for this weekend

Neil Lennon was "livid" after the actions of Boli Bolingoli led to two of Celtic's matches being postponed

Tuesday into Wednesday was a time of thunder and lightning.

Neil Lennon's evisceration of Boli Bolingoli was a tumultuous eruption that put it up to the weather Gods and in the business of making of a noise they, like the Celtic manager, delivered something worth seeing and hearing, in some parts of the country at any rate.

One storm has passed but another has arrived in its wake. Hearts, who have adhered to all protocols and have broken no rules, have been told abruptly that they need to suspend training until 24 August at the earliest.

Who made the instruction? Professor Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, said the government did not ask for it. A government spokesperson has confirmed the decision was not at the behest of Holyrood. It would appear it was offered up by the Scottish FA and the SPFL.

They had no need to do it, but they did it anyway. So why do it? That's the question an incensed Hearts are asking right now. In the absence of any directive from government it's entirely unclear how the Scottish FA and the SPFL can order a club to stop training. They need to explain.

Punishing those who have done nothing wrong is a strange mission statement from the football authorities. A league with numerous offenders carries on - no clubs fined, no games forfeited or even a threat to forfeit - but a club with a clean bill of health and robust procedures in place is effectively closed down for a week or more. It's a twisted logic.

In the wake of the Aberdeen Eight and the Malaga One we're lucky to have games to preview this weekend. The first minister would have been within her rights to call a temporary halt to the season.

She must have been sorely tempted. For all that we think that football is an essential part of life, it's as nothing when compared to the importance of public health. Ms Sturgeon gave football one last chance to get all of its houses in order and for her leniency football owes her a debt.

One of these weeks the action on the field in the Premiership is going to supersede what happens off it, albeit this is a prediction we've been making in these parts for about the last 15 years and it hasn't quite come off just yet.

Maybe this is the weekend it happens. Football the main talking point? We'll see.

Motherwell players feel Robinson's wrath

Motherwell are now one win from 11 league games from the end of last season into the first three matches of this term. No wonder their manager went for the jugular following their 2-2 draw at home to Livingston. On Saturday, they go to Easter Road low on confidence and high on earache.

Stephen O'Donnell has joined. That makes two recent Scotland internationals in the back four and some proven operators further up the park. This team won a lot of games last season. They shouldn't be toiling so badly.

Manager Stephen Robinson believes too many of his many players are lacking heart at the moment. Alan Campbell and David Turnbull are two who will have been exempt from flak but many others were firmly in his crosshairs. He didn't name names, but Chris Long would have been one of them for sure.

At his best, Long is a combative player, an effective striker who scored 11 goals in all competitions last season. A decent return. Long's form is a microcosm of the things that have dogged Motherwell.

On Wednesday, in terms of work-rate he was outdone by his opposite number Lyndon Dykes. Long had zero shots on target, Dykes had three. Long had 16 touches of the ball, Dykes had 53. Long had three passes, Dykes had 34.

The point his manager was making, with some colourful language for emphasis, was that he and others are capable of much more - and they'll need to start producing.

The return of Turnbull's Tornadoes, kind of...

It's bordering on blasphemy to compare the current Hibs team with Eddie Turnbull's side of 1974, but that's what has happened since Hibs won their third straight game in midweek.

Victory at home to Motherwell and they'll have produced the best start to a league season since Pat Stanton, John Blackley and John Brownlee were the giants of Easter Road.

Jack Ross' team have scored seven and have conceded just two. Christian Doidge and Martin Boyle are already on two league goals and Kevin Nisbet on three. Scott Allan, Josh Doig and Daryl Horgan all have assists. Horgan has two.

They didn't look like it in the turgid 1-0 win over Dundee United last time out, but they have all sorts of firepower now. If they've also developed the ability to grind out more wins when they're way below par, then they'll have taken a significant step forward. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with winning ugly.

Gerrard wants more from Rangers

The Rangers manager didn't go overboard when praising his team for their back-to-back 3-0 wins over St Mirren on Sunday and St Johnstone on Wednesday.

Steven Gerrard felt that against Jim Goodwin's team they needed to shoot more and cross more and stop trying to score the perfect goal.

Against Callum Davidson's side he said they got sloppy when three goals clear. "I'm concerned at the standard. We could have got to four and five but we didn't deserve four and five," he said.

At times last season Gerrard was guilty of over-praising his players. This season he seems more demanding of them. Is this part of a new psychology to toughen them up mentally?

Bolingoli has given Rangers an opportunity to move 11 points ahead of Celtic before the champions next kick a ball in the league. This is an opportunity for them to apply some early-season pressure.

They travel to Livingston on Sunday. Unlike most other teams they didn't have many problems on the pitch there last season, winning 2-0 in the league and 1-0 in the League Cup. If Gerrard is true to his mantra he will want more goals than that this time.

Whither Leigh Griffiths?

Celtic are not playing this weekend and, while we know they'll be back in action soon, the same cannot be said of their one-time prolific striker. Neil Lennon has now spent £4.5m on the 23-year-old Swiss international Albian Ajeti to go with the £3.5m spent on 22-year-old Polish international Patryk Klimala.

Ajeti had a miserable time at West Ham last season - no league starts and no goals - but on his Basel form he's an interesting acquisition. Klimala, meanwhile, looks like he's improving. Both will fight it out for game time and the right to be considered Odsonne Edouard's strike partner or understudy, but that leaves Leigh Griffiths out in the cold somewhat.

Fourth in line is no place to be, but that's surely his spot in the pecking order now.

Griffiths hasn't helped himself - and he turns 30 next week. Even if the penny is dropping with him it might already be too late. Celtic look like a club that's ready to kick on without him.

Can Burke make it four in four?

Kilmarnock's Chris Burke has made a blistering start to the season with three goals in three games - a free-kick against Hibs, a penalty against Celtic and a rocket into the roof of Ross County's net on Wednesday.

At the age of 36, Burke has become positively Boydian in his goalscoring exploits. If he scores another one at home to St Johnstone on Saturday then we may have to start reaching for the record books.

His professionalism is an example to everybody. He played the full 90 minutes against Hibs, played 87 minutes against Celtic and another 90 against Ross County. No wonder he's such a beloved character at the club.