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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers seemed when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either squad this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, 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' DECLINE

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly consulting his schedule to find out how many time are left until his deal expires, and woke up this day to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead 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 enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.