Why Heart of Midlothian's Historic Championship Challenge Shouldn't Come as a Shock.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising element of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the top of the standings emerged. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the table and a significant margin clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the progress of both team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a joke in the process. Nine games into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost 10 points from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is 246.

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

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday wearing 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 realized the bookies had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

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. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. 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 truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, the Scottish game might actually have a title race that a team other than the traditional powers can win.