🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been following the progress of either squad this season will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far lost a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this day to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in all my time 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 there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific start to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight 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 club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.