After only two weeks of domestic competition, the season is already put on hold thanks to the international break, and even though it is far too early to jump to conclusions, some teams are already making strong statements in regards to their aspirations for the campaign.
Following the form they showed last season, and also bearing in mind that their opening two fixtures were against European competitors Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen, nobody (apart from a few visionaries) thought VfL Wolfsburg would have six points out of six. Only positives can be taken from both performances for die Wölfe, who displayed an exciting, attacking style of play in each game. They now find themselves in the Champions League positions, along with, just as surprisingly, Hertha BSC. The Berliners have also won both of their matches and even though they have not been as encouraging as Wolfsburg, they certainly look solid, and you would expect that no side would want to play them right now.
After being tipped by most football experts to be the main relegation candidates, the Bundesliga’s two newcomers have shown they won’t go quietly after a couple of impressive showings, even though the results are yet to follow. Nurnberg, especially, played well this weekend in their home encounter against Mainz, racking up double the amount of shots of their opponents as well as dominating possession with 58%. From a negative aspect, however, you would expect the early strugglers such as VfB Stuttgart, Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig to climb up the league sooner rather than later, so failing to take big chances such as the one they had on Sunday may come back to bit them later on.
Last, but not least, the title race continues as it has done for the last six years in German football: Bayern top the table whilst their “competitors” slip up. Despite their comfortable win in their opening match, BVB drew at Hannover in a game where they had the better chances but lacked fluidity and conciseness. That, combined with Bayern dispatching their rivals week-in week-out, shows that a lot will need to change if the Bavarian side are to fail to win their seventh consecutive league title.