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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest victory, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.