HSV Take Charge at the Top
Two wins lifted Hamburger SV from eighth to first, while winless Bayer Leverkusen remain rooted to the bottom after five Bundesliga games.
The early Bundesliga lead was up for grabs. Hamburger SV seized it with two wins in a week, moving from eighth to first and opening a one-point gap over Bayern München, who have played one game fewer.
HSV beat 1. FC Köln 2-0, then edged DSC Arminia Bielefeld 2-1 on 21 September. That makes three wins and two draws from five games: an unbeaten start built on steady work, not noise. Köln, meanwhile, remain without a win and have slipped from 12th to 15th.
VfL Wolfsburg made the sharpest climb. They beat Hertha Berlin 2-0, then won 3-2 at Bayer Leverkusen, rising from 18th to ninth. Hertha fell from second to seventh. Leverkusen have lost all five games and sit bottom, without a point. There is no hiding from that sort of start.
Bayern took a 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt to reach 10 points from four matches. Borussia Dortmund remain third on eight after a 2-2 draw with Fortuna Düsseldorf, who are fifth on the same total. RB Leipzig beat Arminia 2-0 and also have eight points from four games.
The unbeaten list still stretches beyond the top five: FC St. Pauli and Sport-Club Freiburg have yet to lose, too. Freiburg drew 0-0 at Borussia Mönchengladbach; St. Pauli shared a goalless draw with Greuther Fürth. Fürth have no win after four games, as do Nürnberg, Köln and Leverkusen. Nürnberg fell from 14th to 17th after losing 3-2 at Mainz.
Five games in, HSV have the lead and the cleanest record at the top. Bayern are close behind with a match in hand. The table is still young, but Wolfsburg have already shown how quickly a rough start can turn.