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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole surprising element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention 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 fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many days are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, 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 Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.