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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his deal expires, and awoke this day to discover the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his side's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.