🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

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 meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told the media following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on matchday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.