🔗 Share this article The Reasons Hearts' Historic Title Tilt Isn't as a Surprise. JAMBOS BLAZING Maybe the only surprising 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 consequences for the top of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both squad this campaign will have been even remotely astonished by the final score. For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish football between them, turning fitba to something of a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the present campaign it has become clear that Hearts – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold. CELTIC'S DECLINE Although much of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who constantly consulting his Google calendar to find out how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the number is over two hundred. "I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his desire for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time." EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could typically be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to operate with a budget 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 equation. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system. In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly noticed the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's chances of defeating the struggling title holders, and placed large bets as a result. MANAGER'S RESPONSE "I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired team manager Derek McInnes after his side's most recent victory, their eighth in nine league matches. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have given us. In terms of skill, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might actually have a championship battle that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.