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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been following the progress of either squad this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly checking his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed 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. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. 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 look in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.