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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody 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 past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.