🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised observers seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot 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 Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this day to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to 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 endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents 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 modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's chances of defeating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is 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're really pleased with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.