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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly consulting his schedule to see how many days are left until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start 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 roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents 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 mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly realized the bookies had massively misjudged his side's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.