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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of both squad this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

Over the past four decades, 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. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a budget 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 a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole 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 discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is 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. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly 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." No, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.