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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific start to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his side's chances of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, 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 fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.