🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only unexpected element of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which leaves the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of either team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from their opening nine league games this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to operate with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts 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 Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's chances of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.