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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people appeared when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

Over the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to discover the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is present to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.