🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people seemed when news of the outcome and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos leading of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this season will have been in the least astonished 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 the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. 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 remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, 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 Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions 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 good place, and certainly physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can win.