🔗 Share this article Why Hearts' Historic Title Tilt Isn't as a Surprise. JAMBOS BLAZING Maybe the sole surprising aspect of Hearts' victory over Celtic in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback people appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the top of the table circulated. While this 3-1 win at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league 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 shocked by the final score. Over the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest. CELTIC'S SLUMP Although a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine fixtures this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his schedule to see how many days are left until his contract ends, and awoke this day to discover the answer is 246. "I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early." NEW CHALLENGER Considering the horrific start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an capital city challenger has joined the fray. Despite being obliged to operate 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 added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to investing £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts sole use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool. In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday sporting a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots as a result. MANAGER'S REACTION "I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. 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 provided us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.