🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.