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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.