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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the top of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the process. Nine games into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just 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 Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, 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 person who had almost certainly realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.