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JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been following the progress of either squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to discover the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced 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 capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged 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 investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly 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, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can win.