🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers seemed when news of the result and its impact for the top of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific beginning to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor 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, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his side's chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can win.