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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

Over the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm 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 apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, 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.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many days are left until his deal expires, and awoke this day to learn 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 questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.