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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked 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 football between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his deal ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.