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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers seemed when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his contract ends, and woke up this day to discover the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that is not just 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 SPL mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his team's chances of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded team manager the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can win.