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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of either team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents 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. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly realized the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. 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 claim.