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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin clear 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 final score.

For each of the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers 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 joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his side's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.