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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, 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 famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's chances of defeating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'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 win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness 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 wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.