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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron 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 complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's chances of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm 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 definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.