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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when reports of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

Over the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to see how many time are left until his deal expires, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.