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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from 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 see how many days are left until his deal expires, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.