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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been following the progress of both team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this day to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate 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 Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.