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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised observers appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the progress of either team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the process. 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 – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost a considerable number from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful start to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga 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 total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth 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 lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.