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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin 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 astonished by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this day to learn the answer is 246.

"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 any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division 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 professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely realized the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's chances of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.