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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far lost a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this day to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced 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 Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth 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 modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.