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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the result.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of 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

Given the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can win.