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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the top of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual 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 all my time at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth 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. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.