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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the progress of both squad this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar 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 the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis 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 exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.