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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although a lot 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 meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, 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 Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled 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 total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look 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 the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.