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JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season 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 allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many days are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga 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 exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. 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 good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.