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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the top of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this season will have been even remotely shocked 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 almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.