Bayern Munich continued their sensational start to the 2025/26 season with a 5-0 thrashing of VfB Stuttgart away from home, led by a hat-trick from talisman Harry Kane, who started the match from the bench. Vincent Kompany made wholesale changes to the starting lineup from the one that started in the 3-2 win over Union Berlin in the DFB-Pokal and the Belgian manager also had one eye on the Champions League match against Sporting Lisbon this week at the Allianz Arena.
To date, Bayer’s only slip-ups
this season were the 2-2 Bundesliga draw at Union Berlin and the 3-1 loss at Arsenal in the Champions Leauge — other than that, they’ve been next to perfect. The German Rekordmeister are on top of the league table by a comfortable eight points over second-place RB Leipzig, on to the quarterfinals of the DFB-Pokal, and in a direct qualification spot for the knockout stages in the Champions League. Even more impressively, Bayern are in the positions they’re in having not had Alphonso Davies and Jamal Musiala all season, both of whom are set to make their returns to action very soon.
Despite the high-flying success of Bayern so far this season as the midway point approaches, former club president Uli Hoeneß does not want the club to get too ahead of themselves. There’s plenty of football left to be played across all competitions and, by no means, does Hoeneß want to start talking about the Bundesliga title yet. “No, we don’t want to become arrogant. We took an important step against Stuttgart because it was a difficult game after the schedule of the past few weeks. When our injured players like Musiala and Davies come back, I’m confident for the title,” the honorary president explained when he was asked about Bayern winning yet another title (via @iMiaSanMia).
As the season is almost halfway done, three-point swings can happen more than once, as Bayern still have to play all of their league rivals that are closest to them in the table; Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, TSG Hoffenheim, etc. They will also be losing Nicolas Jackson for a period for the African Cup of Nations, as he will join up with Senegal, and Bayern’s front office has already said not to expect too much activity in the winter transfer window. Injuries can happen, and Bayern’s track record seems to suggest one or two will be around the corner, so Hoeneß is absolutely right to call for Bayern to not get too ahead of themselves – a sentiment that Kompany certainly shares.
