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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.