🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Jambos top of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been following the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a joke in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered 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, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.