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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

Over the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this day to discover the number is 246.

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

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being forced to function with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager the head coach after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.