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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.