Regular readers and people who know me will understand that I like to try to puzzle things out. Watching this season unravel as a Celtic supporter, one of the things I’ve been trying to work out is whether Hearts are having a genuinely exceptional campaign, or whether we’re here simply because we’ve had a diabolically bad one.

Of course, the fact remains that both things can be true at the same time and that is exactly the situation we find ourselves in.

I’ve looked back over recent title-winning campaigns, and even further back across the last fifteen years. There have only been a handful of occasions where the points total required to win the league has dropped significantly.

This season is not entirely unique, but it is certainly unusual, and the pattern is clear enough when you study it.

The year after we went Invincible is a useful comparison. We won the treble again, but with a surprisingly low points total; 82.

I remember that season well. We dropped points towards the end once we had already secured the title, and because the league was effectively over, nobody paid much attention. But if that race had been tighter, if...