🔗 Share this article Why Hearts' Historic Title Tilt Shouldn't Come as a Surprise. HEARTS ON FIRE Perhaps the only surprising element of Hearts' victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which taken aback observers seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the result. Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the process. Several matches into the current campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm influence is freezing cold. THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to discover the number is 246. "No one has put in more effort in all my time here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a championship battle. "So the motivation is present to attempt to flip the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early." EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could typically be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool. In an Irish defender, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on matchday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a man who had likely noticed the oddsmakers had greatly misjudged his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result. MANAGER'S REACTION "In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said bearded team manager the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have given 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. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in many years, the Scottish game might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.