🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised people appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been following the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline 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 – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this day to discover the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club sole use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.