Bundesliga: Gnabry is Bayern's star man once AGAIN
Serge Gnabry scored a perfect FC rating as Bayern survived a few scares against Paderborn to win 3-2, with the former Arsenal winger involved in all three goals.
It was him who broke the deadlock 25 minutes in. After collecting the ball to feet inside the box he cleverly jinked past a couple of challenges whilst on the stretch before, with no less than four Paderborn defenders around him, managing to squeeze a left-footed strike into the bottom corner.
He would then turn provider, twice for Robert Lewandowski, and with both coming from similar positions. On both occasions, he displayed incredible speed to burst past his marker on the left flank before teeing up his team-mate with a pair of excellent crosses.
Those were two of seven crosses which he successfully delivered into the box, while he also completed five dribbles and sent 23 passes into the final third.
Gladbach lost ground in the Bundesliga championship race after a 1-1 draw at home to Hoffenheim, with them being continually thwarted by opposition keeper Oliver Baumann.
The home side sent 16 shots on goal which forced the Hoffenheim stopper into making a superb nine saves.
One of these came from the penalty spot as he stooped down to his right to commandingly beat away Alassane Plea's strike from 12 yards.
The best save of the day actually came after he initially made a mistake to spill a strike behind him, only to recover with a superb, clawed stop with one hand from right on the line.
RB Leipzig's impressive week continued as they followed up their victory against Spurs in the Champions League with a 5-0 demolition of Schalke.
Christopher Nkunku was the assist king of the game, setting up four of the five goals.
All of the assists came in the second half, too, with the first coming via a neat pass to Timo Werner. The second was a set-piece as he sent a cracking corner into the box for Marcel Halstenberg.
It was down the left where he caused huge problems, and from there where he passed in for Angelino to score.
The fourth and final assist came in a more central area, as he threaded a lovely pass through the middle for Emil Forsberg to curl a strike into the left corner.
While Gnabry was the biggest creative influence for Bayern in the win over Paderborn, the champions still could rely on Lewandowski to emphatically score his two major chances.
As mentioned previously, it was Gnabry that set up them both, but when the ball broke to the big Pole there was zero doubts about him finishing with a pair of right-footed strikes.
He enjoyed 13 touches inside the opposition box which was more than anyone in this round of Bundesliga fixtures.
The two-goal tally maybe should have been improved upon, though, as he had five other shots on goal which didn't hit the back of the net.
Fortuna Dusseldorf won for the first time since the middle of December after impressively defeating Freiburg 2-0 away from home.
Kevin Stoger was key to the victory as he assisted both goals, with the first coming after a lovely corner set-piece routine which resulted in him firing a cross to the back post for Andre Hoffmann.
The second goal, which ultimately clinched the win for the visitors, was all about the electric pace of Erik Thommy. But, it was a brave header won by Stoger which set the forward on his way to his superb goal.
HONOURABLE MENTION
Lowly Hertha Berlin were destroyed 5-0 by Koln at the weekend, with Jhon Cordoba (9,3) scoring two goals and setting up another in the impressive away victory.
ROUND TO FORGET
There was a few Schalke players who could have made it in here, but Alexander Nubel (4.1) was pretty hopeless between the sticks as he conceded five - one of which came after a direct error from him.