🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only unexpected element of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost a considerable number from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed 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 morning to discover the answer 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 appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his side's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.