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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been following the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, 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 fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.