🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to operate with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga 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. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.