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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one 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 the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing 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 celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus 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 meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive 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 beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.