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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions 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 man who constantly checking his schedule to see how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

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 total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded team manager the head coach after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.