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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, no one who has been following the progress of either team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this day to learn the number is 246.

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

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion 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. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly 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 statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. Technically, we appear 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 the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.