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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a joke in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this day to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole 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 unpolished gems 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 modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can win.