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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole surprising element of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's chances of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.