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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although 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, no one who has been following the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

Over the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this day to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely realized the bookies had massively underestimated his team's chances of defeating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.