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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly checking his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to learn the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific 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 failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate 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 good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.