The Reasons Heart of Midlothian's Historic Championship Challenge Shouldn't Come as a Surprise.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the only surprising element of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which leaves the Edinburgh side leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both squad this campaign will have been in the least astonished by the result.

For each of the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to strike while the Old Firm iron is at its weakest.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

While much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decline has been able to fester below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is 246.

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

NEW CHALLENGER

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players 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 fray. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the investment and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we look in a strong position, and certainly in fitness we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.