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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody 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 last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.