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HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly realized the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.