Bundesliga Bulletin: Bayern slip, Frankfurt and Leipzig win

Good week for: Frankfurt, Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Mark Uth (finally), Mainz

Bad week for: Bayern, Stuttgart (again), Düsseldorf (again), Werder Bremen (again), Lisa Müller (who?) 

The lowdown:

— Borussia Dortmund will go into next Saturday's "Klassiker" against Bayern Munich four points clear of the Bavarians after the champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Freiburg. While Dortmund won 1-0 away at Wolfsburg thanks to a Marco Reus goal, Nicolas Höler's late equalizer for Freiburg at the Allianz Arena did nothing to relieve the pressure on coach Niko Kovac.

— Borussia Mönchengladbach bounced back from a 5-0 hammering against Bayer Leverkusen in the cup to beat another Rhineland rival, Fortuna Düsseldorf, 3-0. A brace from Thorgan Hazard and another from Jonas Hofmann saw the Foals go second in the table, ahead of Bayern on goal difference. Newly-promoted Fortuna have now lost six league games in a row by a combined score of 20-2. 

— RB Leipzig are up to fourth thanks to another convincing win away at Hertha Berlin — a happy hunting ground for the Red Bull franchise since their arrival in the Bundesliga two years ago. After a 4-1 win in 2017 and a 6-2 win earlier this year at the Olympic Stadium, Timo Werner scored twice as Ralf Rangnick's side ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Since their Europa League defeat to their Salzburg-based sister club, RB are now unbeaten in ten and second in the Bundesliga form table. 

— Next in the form table are Eintracht Frankfurt who are now unbeaten in seven following a convincing 3-0 win away at struggling VfB Stuttgart on Friday night. Goals from Sebastian Haller, Ante Rebic and Nicolai Müller saw the Eagles make short work of the Swabians who are still to even score under new coach Markus Weinzierl whose record reads as follows: Played three, lost three, scored none, conceded eleven.

— After last week's 6-2 hammering of Werder Bremen and Wednesday's 5-0 cup win in Mönchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen seemed to have turned a corner. But the pressure is back on coach Heiko Herrlich after a 4-1 defeat at home to Hoffenheim. English teenager Reiss Nelson was once again on target for Julian Nagelsmann's side, as was Joelinton who scored twice as the SAP-backed outfit climbed up to seventh. 

— Mainz are back to winning ways, stopping the rot picking up a much-needed three points against Werder Bremen. They made life difficult for themselves by conceding a late goal by the 102-year-old striker Claudio Pizarro, but it was too little too late for Bremen, whose blistering start to the season has come grinding to a halt with back-to-back league defeats.

— Schalke moved further away from the relegation zone thanks to a 3-1 win over Hannover in Gelsenkirchen, a game which saw the Royal Blues end some pretty remarkable goal-scoring droughts ... (see Stats!) 

The quotes

"I look up to Marco Reus like an idol. When he tells me things I listen"
- Jadon Sancho to DW after another good performance for BVB against Wolfsburg.

"It was like our goal was cursed and it was a deserved defeat. I don't want to sugarcoat it. Six or seven of my players had a bad day"
- Hertha Berlin coach Pal Dardai after his team's defeat to RB Leipzig.

"I'm over the moon that we've managed to get a draw. We've lost here often enough."
- Christian Streich after Freiburg's first ever point at the Allianz Arena. 

"We've seen an extraordinarily good, hot-blooded football match. It was an advert for the Bundesliga, which has come in for criticism recently."
- Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann after his team's 4-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen

"It was an extremely important victory. I don't even want to know what would have happened if we'd lost."
- Christian Heidel, relieved Schalke sporting director after the Royal Blues' 3-1 win over Hannover.

"Six or seven years ago, that would never have been a penalty. The referee should have played on waited for a signal from the video cellar if necessary. But that's how it is: it seems that they give penalties against us but never for us."
- Fortuna Düsseldorf coach Friedhelm Funkel on the penalty given against his team during their defeat to Gladbach. 

"She loves me, what can I do about that?" 
- Bayern Munich's Thomas Müller on an ill-advised Instagram post by his wife, Lisa (see Weird!) 

The stats

- Mark Uth finally scored his first goal for Schalke after 1,083 minutes in Royal Blue.

- Breel Embolo's goal which restored Schalke's lead was the Royal Blues' first goal from open play in 497 minutes. 

- Lucien Favre won in Wolfsburg for the first ever time ...

... becoming the first ever Borussia Dortmund to remain unbeaten in his first 15 games ...

... thanks partly to the best Dortmund attack in Bundesliga history. 

- Timo Werner scored his 49th and 50th goals in his RB career. 

- Nicolas Höler's late equalizer saw Freiburg win their first ever point at the Allianz Arena. 

- After a third defeat in three games by a combined score of 0-11, Stuttgart coach Markus Weinzierl has now made the second-worst start of any coach in Bundesliga history. The worst? Jörg Berger, who lost his first three games in charge of Hannover in 1986 by a combined score of 3-16. 

- Aged 18 years, 10 months and 25 days, Reiss Nelson became the third-youngest player to score five Bundesliga goals. Only Schalke's Olaf Thon (18 years, 10 months, 15 days) and Cologne's Lukas Podolski (18 years, 10 months and 14 days) were younger. 

- Augsburg striker Alfred Finnbogason has only had six shots on goal this season - but all six have gone in. 

- The last eight shots on Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer's goal have all gone in.

- Franck Ribery became the first foreign player to made 400 appearances for Bayern Munich. 

- Borussia Mönchengladbach's last seven goals have been scored by Jonas Hofmann (4) and Thorgan Hazard (3).

The fans

To coincide with the latest Football Leaks revelations, the "Fanszene Deutschlands" fan coalition launched their latest nationwide protest against the perceived over-commercialization of the game. 

In Bundesliga 2, Dynamo Dresden supporters passed a crossed-out DFB logo around the stadium ahead of their game against Sandhausen and also displayed a banner reading: "You buy up the game as you like it." 

In the Bundesliga, VfB Stuttgart supporters distributed oversized fake bank notes featuring the faces of several prominent DFB functionaries and the message: "Money is all you are interested in!" 

In Berlin, Hertha fans refused to sing after their club banned all banners and flags in response to the incidents in Dortmund last week.

The weird

With Bayern Munich still struggling to break down a stubborn Freiburg defense after 70 minutes, Niko Kovac turned to substitute Thomas Müller. But the decision came too late — at least according to Müller's wife Lisa who posted a photograph on Instagram with the sarcastic caption: "Over 70 mins and he's had a stroke of genius..." 

She later deleted the post, as well as all other posts featuring her husband, and apologized to Kovac, as reported by the official Bayern Munich website — the go-to place for important Bundesliga news in accordance with the German constitution.