🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both squad this season 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 joke in the process. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already lost 10 points from nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who constantly checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's chances of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. 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. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.