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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific beginning to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes 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 might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.