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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.