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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost a considerable number from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to see how many days are left until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.