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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although much of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.