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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 the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder 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. "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 experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly realized the bookies had massively misjudged his side's chances of beating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," 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 could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.