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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although much of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.