The Reasons Heart of Midlothian's Landmark Championship Challenge Isn't as a Surprise.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only unexpected element of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people seemed when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the progress of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

Although a lot of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far lost a considerable number from their opening nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract expires, and awoke this morning to discover the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire 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 horrific beginning to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be anticipated to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of beating the struggling champions, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S REACTION

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.