🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

For each of the past 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 joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his deal ends, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded team manager the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the first time in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.