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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his schedule to see how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems 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. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.