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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

Over the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is 246.

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

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. 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 players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.