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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot 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 situation at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics 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 Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.