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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change 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 look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.