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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

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 lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.