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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this day to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a strong position, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.