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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of either squad this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this day to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.