The first midweek of the season is over in the Bundesliga and as Matchday 5 has concluded, the usual suspects are leading the way.
Both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich have had a sticky match already but the two powerhouses of German football are now leading the race for the championship. With last season's runners-up RB Leipzig floundering in mid-table, it is the unlikely sources of Hannover 96 and FC Augsburg leading the chasing pack.
Meanwhile, change might be on its way soon in Cologne after the worst start in their top-flight history. Change has already happened at VfL Wolfsburg - again!
Here's a round-up of the action from Matchday 4 and 5.
Matchday 4: Injuries and home success
Matchday 4 kicked off last Friday with Hannover 96 shooting themselves to the summit of the Bundesliga for the first time in their history. Martin Harnik was on the scoresheet again in the 2-0 victory over Hamburger SV. It meant Andre Breitenreiter's side would be on top of the table for nearly 48 hours. Breitenreiter has been top of the big league before with SC Paderborn 07 in 2014, so he did have experience of being the ones to catch for a brief experience.
By the end of the weekend, Borussia Dortmund were back in the no.1 position. There were two goals each for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Maximilian Philipp as Cologne were hammered 5-0 in the Signal Iduna Park on Sunday afternoon.
Andriy Yarmolenko put in a starring performance on his home debut, as Dortmund quickly recovered from their European setback at Wembley against Tottenham Hotspur.
Bayern Munich started the weekend outside of the top four but regained their usual position in the leading pack after a comfortable 4-0 success over a Mainz side, who had recently enjoyed good results to the Allianz Arena.
However, their two-year unbeaten record in Munich ended as Carlo Ancelotti's side looked more like their usual self. Joshua Kimmich was the star, playing a role in all four goals scored. Robert Lewandowski scored twice. Spare a thought for Rene Adler. He has now conceded 17 goals on his last three visits to the stadium!
There was a first win of the season for Bayer 04 Leverkusen, as they eased past a fragile Freiburg 4-0 at the BayArena.
Kevin Volland was another player who scored twice on the weekend as Leverkusen got some much-needed shooting practice in a match which will surely be one of the most one-sided games of the season. Freiburg were one of three teams yet to win this season in the top-flight.
Another is SV Werder Bremen. Their 2-1 home loss to FC Schalke 04 was more significant because of an injury sustained to star attacker Max Kruse. He landed awkwardly after a clean challenge by Thilo Kehrer and broke his collarbone. Kruse will be out of action until mid-November at the earliest.
Christian Gentner was also in the wars. The VfB Stuttgart captain was taken to hospital after being involved in a sickening collision with the VfL Wolfsburg goalkeeper Koen Casteels.
He was stretchered off with a broken nose, broken jaw and damaged eye sockets. That overshadowed Stuttgart's 1-0 victory which would have serious ramifications for Wolfsburg trainer, Andries Jonker.
All change again at Wolfsburg
48 hours after that defeat in the Mercedes-Benz Arena and Jonker was the first managerial casualty of the 2017-2018 season. Wolfsburg wasted no time in employing the former Mainz manager Martin Schmidt as his successor. Jonker can count himself slightly unfortunate. He won eight of his 17 Bundesliga games in charge - almost as high a win ratio than what Jurgen Klopp has managed at Liverpool FC. He lost his main attacker Mario Gomez last week to an ankle ligament injury and didn't get the chance to build his team having taken over at the end of February.
It means VfL Wolfsburg are now on their fourth permanent manager in less than a year. That is a desperate statistic for a team that finished runners-up in the Bundesliga as recently as 2015. The club has been run like a circus for the past 12 months. It nearly cost them their top-flight status last season and if they continue to axe managers for fun, they will slip out of the Bundesliga sooner than expected. Schmidt did a decent job at Mainz and took them into European football in 2016 but at the current going rate, surviving into the New Year will be an achievement in itself.
Matchday 5: Dortmund and Bayern show their class
Schmidt's first game in charge was a 1-1 draw with SV Werder Bremen on Tuesday night.
In this match, Divock Origi scored his first goal for the Wolves' since joining on-loan from Liverpool FC.
Bremen are still without a win and the same goes for Freiburg and Cologne. Freiburg required their super-sub Nils Petersen to come off the bench and rescue a point at home to Hannover. Cologne were beaten 1-0 at home in the midweek round by Eintracht Frankfurt. It leaves them bottom of the table, with no points and six successive defeats in all competitions. They've also only scored one league goal too. The departure of Anthony Modeste in the summer is looking more baffling now. Coach Peter Stoger has some credit in the bank following last season's heroics but he needs a result and quickly.
At the top of the table, both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich cruised to 3-0 away victories over Hamburger SV and FC Schalke 04 respectively. Christian Pulisic scored the third goal in the win at Hamburg on Wednesday night. That was Borussia Dortmund's 3000th goal in the Bundesliga. In Gelsenkirchen, James Rodriguez scored his first goal for his new club as Bayern demonstrated their class against Schalke. That is despite losing goalkeeper and skipper Manuel Neuer until January with a broken foot sustained in training.
RB Leipzig's inconsistent season continued with a 1-0 loss at FC Augsburg. Michael Gregoritsch's goal means Augsburg are now in the top five and enjoying their best-ever start to a Bundesliga season.
They sit behind Hannover and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, who produced another remarkable comeback in Mainz to win 3-2, having trailed 2-0 inside 20 minutes.
Matchday 6 starts on Friday night with Bayern Munich hosting VfL Wolfsburg, whilst Borussia Monchengladbach travel to Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig look to kick-start their season at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Match Results
Matchday 4 results: Hannover 96 2-0 Hamburger SV, SV Werder Bremen 1-2 FC Schalke 04, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-2 FC Augsburg, Bayern Munich 4-0 1. FSV Mainz 05, VfB Stuttgart 1-0 VfL Wolfsburg, RB Leipzig 2-2 Borussia Monchengladbach, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 1-1 Hertha BSC, Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4-0 SC Freiburg, Borussia Dortmund 5-0 Cologne
Matchday 5 results: Borussia Monchengladbach 2-0 VfB Stuttgart, FC Augsburg 1-0 RB Leipzig, FC Schalke 04 0-3 Bayern Munich, VfL Wolfsburg 1-1 SV Werder Bremen, Cologne 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt, Hertha BSC 2-1 Bayer 04 Leverkusen, SC Freiburg 1-1 Hannover 96, Hamburger SV 0-3 Borussia Dortmund, 1. FSV Mainz 05 2-3 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
