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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine league games this season under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his schedule to see how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this day to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating 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 the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted 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, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.