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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised observers appeared when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely realized the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots 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 victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.