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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback observers seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the focus 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 resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm views 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 certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.