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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much 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 Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure 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 isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems 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 score with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. 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. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.