🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the standings 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 tracking the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, reducing fitba to almost a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is 246.

"No one has put in more effort 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. "So the motivation 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 horrific beginning to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday sporting a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can win.