Why Hearts' Landmark Title Tilt Shouldn't Come as a Surprise.

HEARTS ON FIRE

Maybe the only surprising element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either squad this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S DECLINE

Although much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped a considerable number from nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. As well as investing £10m 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 an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for those on the periphery. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.