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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been following the progress of both squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this day to learn the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling 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 dreadful beginning 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 this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"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 league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.