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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this day to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, 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 Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.