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HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost a considerable number from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his deal expires, and woke up this day to learn the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.