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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback observers seemed when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

Over the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

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 situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract expires, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect 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. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.