Scottish Premiership PREVIEW 1 Aug 2026: Hearts' exodus meets in-form Aberdeen; Falkirk host St Mirren

Aberdeen host Hearts at Pittodrie on Saturday evening, and the visitors arrive amid considerable upheaval. Hearts led the title race for much of last season before a 3-1 defeat to Celtic on the final day handed the champions the title by two points. That disappointment carried into the summer: manager Derek McInnes, captain Lawrence Shankland and midfielder Cammy Devlin all left to join Rangers. New head coach Wouter Vrancken lost his first friendly in charge to Livingston before winning his next two, but Hearts then suffered a heavy 6-0 aggregate defeat by Sturm Graz in Champions League qualifying, leaving them short on confidence for this trip north.

Aberdeen, in contrast, won all four of their Scottish League Cup group games to finish top and set up a last-16 tie with Dundee. Kevin Nisbet has scored six goals in that group stage and is expected to lead the Aberdeen attack. Hearts have won two of their last three meetings with Aberdeen overall, yet have not won any of their last 14 visits to Pittodrie, and go into Saturday's game without Stephen Kingsley and Alexandros Kyziridis, both forced off with injury in the second leg against Sturm Graz.

St Mirren's own site confirms Saturday's trip to the Falkirk Stadium is a sellout, the club having received an allocation of around 770 tickets for the match, with supporters told not to travel without one. It is the first league game for both sides since Falkirk finished sixth last season while St Mirren had to survive a relegation play-off, which St Mirren won on a 2-1 aggregate after a Marcus Fraser goal settled the second leg against Partick Thistle. Falkirk's form has been uneven since: they lost to Ayr United and then went out on penalties to Alloa Athletic in the League Cup, finishing second in their group, five points behind Ayr United. St Mirren topped their own group, their only defeat coming 1-0 to Dunfermline Athletic in their final group match, and they can also point to winning 2-1 on each of their last two league visits to the Falkirk Stadium.