🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the result.

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 something of a joke in the process. Nine games into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. 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 thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this day to discover the answer is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has granted the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.