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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and woke up this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful beginning to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look 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 initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.