Morelos double and Ramsey debut as Rangers beat Hearts 5-0 at Ibrox

Rangers bounced back from their midweek disappointment with a dominant 5-0 victory over Hearts at Ibrox on Sunday.

Returning Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos stole the show with a double as new signing Aaron Ramsey made his debut in front a packed Ibrox.

Celtic’s 4-0 win over Motherwell earlier on Sunday added to some pre-match nerves for Rangers who temporarily fell four points behind the league leaders.

But it was a case of “anything you can do we can do better” for the Champions who showed there were not about to give up their title without a fight as they bettered that score-line against third-placed Hearts.

Morelos opened the scoring for the home-side on the eleventh minute after the forward turned home a Ryan Kent cross.

The striker was sorely missed for van Bronckhorst’s men when he was away with his national team, only for him to not even make the bench for games against Peru and Argentina.

And he looked lively right from the start of the game and he was in the right place at the right time to put the champions 1-0 up and ease some tension around the stadium.

Rangers went into the break 1-0 up after a strong first half but it was Hearts that came out the traps quickest and nearly equalised through a Cammy Devlin lob that drifted just wide of Allan McGregor’s post.

On the hour mark the Edinburgh side looked the most likely to score the next goal until Morelos popped up again and fired home the second with 25 minutes to go.

And Glen Kamara had just been on the pitch for a few minutes when he slotted past Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon to make it 3-0.

The home side were relentless after that as the floodgates opened and Scott Arfield made it four with a rebound after Gordon saved his initial close-range effort.

The goal would be Arfield’s last action of the match and he was replaced by Juventus loan-star Ramsey with 15 minutes to go.

Fashion Sakala also came on for Joe Aribo and it was the Zambian who made it five with Kent again providing the assist.

Robbie Neilson was without John Souttar with the defender, who has signed a pre-contract agreement with Rangers, missing the game through injury.

Rangers remain a point behind Celtic at the top of the Premiership after Sunday’s results with a home game against Hibernian up next.