🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings 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 nature, no one who has been following the progress of both squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect 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 lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his side's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody besides the traditional powers can claim.