The Reasons Heart of Midlothian's Landmark Championship Challenge Shouldn't Come as a Shock.

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback people seemed when news of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the table circulated. Although this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the league and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the fortunes of either team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE

Although much of the attention 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 the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine league games this term under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who constantly checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is 246.

"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he informed the media following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Considering the horrific beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged 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 added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his highly confidential data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.

In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had greatly underestimated his side's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.

MANAGER'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's most recent victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." No, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody besides Celtic or Rangers can win.