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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly checking his schedule to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.