Why Heart of Midlothian's Historic Title Tilt Shouldn't Come as a Surprise.

JAMBOS BLAZING

Maybe the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been following the progress of both squad this season will have been in the least shocked by the result.

For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of the Old Firm have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the disastrous season being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his contract ends, and awoke this morning to learn the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to start strongly, but this year an capital city challenger has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the investment and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Seen at their home venue on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his team's chances of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"I don't think it's a statement win," said bearded team manager the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. 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 provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.