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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when news of the result and its impact for the top of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the result.

Over the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While 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 worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for 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 tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.