The Reasons Hearts' Historic Title Tilt Isn't as a Shock.

HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback people appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have so far lost a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly checking his schedule to see how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful start to the campaign being experienced by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have introduced the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga 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 lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's chances of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter 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. In terms of skill, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.