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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers 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 clear that Hearts – 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.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.