Why Hearts' Historic Championship Challenge Shouldn't Come as a Shock.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the top of the table emerged. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.

Over the past four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become apparent that Hearts – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike 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 suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a individual who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are left until his contract ends, and woke up this morning to discover the number is 246.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the dreadful start to the season being experienced by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could typically be anticipated to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on matchday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had greatly misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.