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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the mix. Despite being forced to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, 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 lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's chances of defeating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.