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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this day to discover the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.