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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect 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 summit of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been following the fortunes of either squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically 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 fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions 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 good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.