Catch 22: Is Europe too much for most Bundesliga teams?

If it seems counterintuitive, it's because it probably is. But there's an argument to be made that, for all but the Bundesliga's two biggest beasts, achieving your aims can quickly become a millstone around your neck.

Six titles in a row with an average winning margin of 17 points demonstrates the chasm between Bayern Munich and second place. Despite slipping to fourth in a tumultuous 2017-18, Borussia Dortmund's resources and squad mean the gap between them and the other 16 clubs is almost as vast, as evidenced by their barnstorming start to this season.

Currently sandwiched between the big two in the table are surprise packages Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen. Gladbach's 4-0 demolition of Mainz on Sunday ensured their best league start for over 30 years while Bremen's clinical 2-0 victory over Schalke the day before put them 11 points clear of their opponents, who finished last season as runners-up.

With almost a quarter of the season gone, three of the four clubs clubs that finished immediately outside the European spots last term (Gladbach, Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen) are, along with Dortmund, the league's overachievers.

Time between games reaps rewards

As with Leverkusen and Schalke, who looked vibrant and well-drilled respectively last term, the fruits of rest and increased preparation time are paying dividends.

Extra time on the training pitch certainly paid off for Hoffenheim last season as Julian Naglesmann's side improved sharply after exiting the Europa League at the group stage. They took 23 points from the last 30 to pip Leverkusen and a Leipzig side who went much deeper in Europe to a Champions League spot on the last day.

The squads of the sides underneath the top tier of the Bundesliga naturally have a smaller pool of players of the quality required for consistency at home and abroad and, at the minute, that's showing. As the season goes on, fatigue is also likely to be an issue, particularly for Leipzig, whose Europa League qualification campaign has seen them play six more games than the league's other sides. They've also used the least number of players in the division (19).

While fighting on two or three fronts hasn't always proved impossible — Leverkusen had qualified for five out of six Champions Leagues before last term — the Bundesliga has had a wider variety of clubs in European competition than most of the continent's other top leagues in recent seasons.

In a league where title races looked to have become a thing of the past, this is often regarded as a positive. A lack of sides able to demonstrate consistency over a season leaves the majority of matches unpredictable and offers the chance of European adventures to a greater number of fans — with Augsburg, Mainz and Freiburg among the surprise recent beneficiaries of this.

Bremen, Gladbach and Hertha are the latest sides to get ideas above their supposed station and few associated with those clubs are likely to be thinking much beyond next weekend, let alone considering next season.

But for those with loftier expectations, for Leverkusen and Schalke in particular, the current state of the table poses some tricky questions. The gap to fourth now stands at eight and 11 points respectively, and with several of the teams above them having four less fixtures and two less cross-continent journeys to fulfill between now and the winter break, Domenico Tedesco and Heiko Herrlich don't have as much time to find solutions as they once did.