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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are left until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific start to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the bookies had massively underestimated his side's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.