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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising element of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much 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 situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that this club 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, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.