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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been following the fortunes of either squad this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides the traditional powers can win.