When the Bundesliga timetable drawn up at the start of the season FC Bayern against newly-promoted SC Paderborn 07 looked like one of the more lopsided fixtures, but when the two teams walked out onto the Allianz Arena for the season’s first Englische Woche match thoughts would be very different. While Bayern had started their first four matches unbeaten despite struggling to get out of first year, the Bundesliga newbies had found themselves at the top of the table – creating what was arguably the most popular top of the table snapshot in a long time.

In the end, reputation and class prevailed as Bayern would engineer a convincing 4-0 win, but despite the scoreline it had been another patchy evening for the home side. Apart from an awesome opening spell and the glossy finish, there was still plenty of room for improvement for Pep Guardiola’s side.

The opening twenty minutes saw Bayern at their best, as the again reworked side threatened to take their opponents apart. A lovely move involving the fit-again Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller set up Mario Götze to execute a smart curling finish after just eight minutes, and Die Roten doubled their lead six minutes later as Robert Lewandowski finally rediscovered his shooting boots with a lovely-range effort. There had been a slight whiff of offside about Philipp Lahm’s pass and Paderborn ‘keeper Lukas Kruse could have done better, but nobody in the home crowd was complaining.

However just as the fans might have thought Bayern were ready to shift up another gear, things slowed down again as the match rolled towards the half-time break. Paderborn had an opportunity to halve the deficit, but Manuel Neuer would do enough to put off Idir Ouali after Moritz Stoppelkamp’s pass had sliced open the Reds’ defence.

The first fifteen minutes of the second half saw the same Bayern that had laboured to a goalless draw against Hamburg at the weekend, and Paderborn again came close to opening their own account – only to be let down by some poor decision-making in the final third. Süleyman Koç had the mot clear cut chance, but shot well wide of the target with the goal at his mercy.

Just as it looked as though Bayern would end up sleepwalking through the final twenty minutes, they switched right back on again with twelve minutes remaining. A teasing ball into the box from Sebastian Rode created havoc in the Paderborn penalty area, and when the defence failed to clear the off-colour Müller’s slightly scuffed effort the much-improved Götze was on hand to slam the ball into the roof of the net from close range.

A much better performance from Bayern, and here Mario Götze scores their third and his second of the evening

The final gloss was provided by Müller, who again lived up to Hermann Gerland’s famous words by doing nothing for most of the game only to score a goal five minutes from time. Robben charged down the right towards the byline, and his neat cross into the six-yard box was smartly finished by Der Raumdeuter, who nonchalantly dinked the ball over the prostrate Kruse.

While the 4-0 scoreline was probably a little unfair on a hard-working Paderborn side, this and the combination of other results takes Bayern clear at the top of the table for the first time this season. The win will surely build confidence for the weekend, where they take on the other newly-promoted side, 1. FC Köln. With a history of close encounters between the two teams over the years, the clash at the RheinEnergieStadion promises to be a cracker.

Bundesliga Week 5
Allianz Arena, München, 23.09.2014

FC Bayern 4:0 (2:0) SC Paderborn 07
Götze 8., 78., Lewandowski 14., Müller 85. / –

FC Bayern: Neuer – Rode, Boateng (46. Rafinha), Dante, Alaba – Lahm (c), Alonso (80. Højbjerg) – Robben, Götze, Müller – Lewandowski (76. Bernat)

Paderborn: L. Kruse – Heinloth (46. Koç), Strohdiek, Hünemeier (c), Brückner – Ziegler – Wemmer, Rupp (76. Ducksch), Ouali (62. Vrančić) – Stoppelkamp – Kachunga

Yellow Cards: – / –