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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can win.