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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback observers appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

For each of the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are left until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," 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 opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.