🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of both squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the process. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost a considerable number from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.