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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of either squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, 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. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

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 escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his side's chances of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.