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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the progress of either squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many time are left 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 all my time at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, 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. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.