🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the fortunes of either team this season will have been in the least astonished 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 something of a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to see how many time are left until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. In spite of being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely realized the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others 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 provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.