Tony Bloom prepares for Hearts-Celtic visit as Jam Tarts embrace hype and welcome back Ageu

The unbeaten Jambos are being touted as title contenders after soaring five points clear at the top of the Premiership following a summer of shrewd recruitment aided by Jamestown Analytics and almost £10million of investment from Brighton owner Tony Bloom.

With Hearts having the chance to go eight points clear if they win on Sunday – an unprecedented situation for any team outwith the Old Firm this century – Bloom will be at Tynecastle for the first time since attending their opening two league matches against Aberdeen and Dundee United.

While McInnes has been attempting to keep a lid on expectations ever since Bloom’s bold claims in August about what the Edinburgh club could achieve, the manager told his players to savour being in the limelight as they gear up for one of their biggest matches in years.

“You’d rather have this than not,” McInnes said when asked about the growing interest in his team’s exploits. “I think it’s important that you want to work for a club with ambition. I think it’s clear from the outset, from the club, showing that ambition, from Tony’s comments and Tony’s involvement, I think that’s elevated things.

“I understand that there’s a lot of focus on us and a spotlight being shone on us at the minute, but we’ve got to try and embrace that. Why would we not? We’re working for a big club, an ambitious club and we want to be successful. We believe we can be successful and who’s to say we can’t be successful this season, whatever that success looks like?”

‘Our fight is with ourselves’

McInnes insisted “the players are fine” when asked how they are coping with the pressure and expectation of being leaders of a league not won by any club other than Celtic or Rangers since 1984-85.

“I think the expectation on ourselves is just to be as good as we can be every game,” he said. “Our fight is with ourselves. The season’s still only eight games in. The time to judge a team is at the end of the season, not after eight games.

“If we can go eight points clear, that would be good shooting from us, there’s no doubt about it. But we could also only be two points clear. For us, we just need to focus on the game. We understand that we’re only nine games in after Sunday. If we can win, I think it would be brilliant for confidence and belief.

“If we don’t win, it’s not going to stop us trying to believe and be confident with our work going forward. There’s three points available, but we’ll do our best to try and get them.”

McInnes reported that record signing Ageu and Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink are both in contention for Sunday’s showdown after being sidelined since August, leaving Frankie Kent, Ryan Fulton and Finlay Pollock as the only absentees.