🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the only unexpected element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a man who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this day to discover the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his players could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted the club sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, 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 matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.