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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.