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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of either squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly consulting his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is 246.

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

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. 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. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.