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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

Over the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his deal ends, and woke up this day to learn the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

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 latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.