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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers seemed when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league 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 Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from their opening 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 see how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's chances of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.