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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both squad this season will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the attention in the Scottish game 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 decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly checking his schedule to see how many time are left until his contract expires, and woke up this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, 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 Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.