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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to almost a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost 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 days are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this day 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 questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, 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 notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly realized the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can win.