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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either 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 football between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this day to discover the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined 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 introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.