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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising element of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover 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 modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his side's chances of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.