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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are left until his deal ends, and awoke 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 informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, 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 fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.