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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly consulting his schedule to see how many time are left until his deal ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.