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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's chances of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted 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. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can win.