The Reasons Hearts' Landmark Championship Challenge Isn't as a Surprise.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the only surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised observers appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, nobody who has been tracking the progress of either team this season will have been in the least astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While much 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 their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many days are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning 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 questioned his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the horrific start to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a budget that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the struggling title holders, and filled his boots as a result.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine outings. "It might be for others on the periphery. It might change opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, data-driven truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can claim.