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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole surprising element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the table circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although 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 meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this day to discover 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 questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can win.