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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season 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 strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely realized the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.