Hearts have also been rejuvenated by the return to fitness of the likes of Steven Naismith, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu in recent weeks and Sunday's game pits together two teams who have each lost just once this year.

Levein said: "Motherwell have picked up since the winter break, they have changed the way they play a little bit, and are on a good run of form.

"We always have tough matches against Motherwell. When I look at the fixture list, Motherwell away is always tough for us.

"Our recent form hasn't been too bad but I don't think by any stretch of the imagination that we are going to go there and dominate this game, because I think they are a really good side and I have a lot of admiration for Stephen.

"I've watched a fair bit of Motherwell and had them watched three times recently.

"It's just a matter of recognising the differences between what they did previously and what they are doing now, and look at ways that we can take advantage of that, or maybe have to stop certain players playing in their team."

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