Why Hearts' Landmark Title Tilt Shouldn't Come as a Surprise.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback people seemed when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the league and eight points ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to discover the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted 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, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.