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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising element of Hearts' triumph 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 standings emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game 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 renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly checking his schedule to find out how many time are left until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse 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 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 function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.