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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games 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 – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his deal expires, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents 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 mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.