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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and woke up this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody besides the traditional powers can win.