Bayern Go Ten Clear As The Chase Draws Blanks
FC Bayern München made it ten games unbeaten with a 4-0 win at DSC Arminia Bielefeld, while the sides below them spilled points and Hamburg slid from second to fifth.
The Bundesliga's chasing pack had one job this week: keep FC Bayern München within reach. They did not do it. Bayern's 4-0 win at DSC Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday took them to 28 points from ten games, nine won and one drawn, and the gap to second is now eight. Nobody below them won convincingly enough to matter.
RB Leipzig did their part, edging Hertha Berlin 1-0 on Saturday to reach 20 points from ten. VfL Wolfsburg also have 20, but from eleven games, after a 3-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Borussia Dortmund are fourth on 19 after a 4-1 home win over 1. FSV Mainz 05, with four draws already on their card. The week's biggest fallers are Hamburger SV: a 1-1 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt dropped them from second to fifth on 18 points. They remain unbeaten, six draws in ten games, which is either resilience or an inability to finish the job. Bayern, the only other side without a defeat, have no such trouble.
At the bottom, 1. FC Nürnberg finally have a win: 1-0 at TSG Hoffenheim on Friday lifted them to 16th on seven points. SpVgg Greuther Fürth, held 1-1 at home by Fortuna Düsseldorf, have seven too and sit 17th on goal difference. Bayer 04 Leverkusen are last, 2-2 at home to Sport-Club Freiburg leaving them on six points from eleven games, one win all season.
Elsewhere, 1. FC Köln won 3-0 at FC St. Pauli. Bayern's week had begun with a 2-0 DFB-Pokal win over Nürnberg, and their European form held up too, with German clubs taking two wins, a draw and a defeat across the week's continental games. The pattern of this Bundesliga is plain: one club is running a professional operation, and the rest are still searching for theirs.