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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly checking his schedule to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, 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 the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.