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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the last 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. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner 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 unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.