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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised 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 league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of either squad this campaign 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 the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost a considerable number from nine league games this term under their manager. 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 remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his team's chances of defeating the struggling champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.