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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers seemed when reports of the result and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts 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 both team this season will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from nine league games this season 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 left until his deal expires, and awoke 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 loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday 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 realized the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.