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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many days are left until his deal expires, and awoke this day to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.