🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the result.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the focus in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his contract ends, and woke up this morning to learn the number is over two hundred.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and certainly in fitness we seem in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.