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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of either squad 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 punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot 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 situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number 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 desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.