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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. 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, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his side's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.