Jadon Sancho put in a supreme performance for Dortmund on Sunday as he bagged a hat-trick in BVB's comprehensive 6-1 drubbing of Paderborn.
Since the return of the Bundesliga after the worldwide pandemic, Dortmund have been careful with the English wonderkid, carefully building up his minutes after returning from injury. In this fixture, he made his first start, and definitely made the most of it.
Sancho may have been deployed down the right, but every single one of his goals came from inside the box, with the first two coming via a couple of tap-ins from the combined distance of about five yards.
His hat-trick goal, which came in injury time, came after Paderborn sent an ill-advised amount of men forward, resulting in a swift counter from Dortmund which was finished by the 20-year-old, coolly slotting into the bottom corner.
Despite regularly being involved in the action with opponents in his vicinity, he still recorded a pass completion rate of 92%, while also completing three dribbles and three crosses into the area.
Gladbach bounced back from the loss against Leverkusen and draw with Werder Bremen to defeat Union Berlin 4-1, with Alassane Plea contributing to three of the goals with two assists and one strike of his own.
The whole match was another representation of the hugely impressive rapport between himself and Marcus Thuram, as it would be Plea who would assist the second and third goals of the game with a pair of excellent crosses to his team-mate.
With under 10 minutes remaining, he would earn a deserved place on the scoresheet by beautifully guiding a left-footed low volley into the bottom corner after the left-wing cross from Ramy Bensebaini.
While Thuram was usually there to finish the chances, Plea regularly came deeper to affect the play more. He completed 31/35 attempted passes to team-mates, 15 of which were sent into dangerous areas in the final third.
Thuram's breakthrough season continues to impress, with him scoring two in the aforementioned win against Union Berlin to take his tally to 10 for the campaign.
He was the benefactor of two precise crosses from Plea. The first was commandingly sent into the bottom corner with a header after he peeled away to the back post, while the second was scored with an emphatic right-footed finish.
While Plea came deep more, Thuram did his work more inside the box, winning 8/17 duels, 4/6 aerial duels.
With eight touches of the ball inside the opposition box, he topped the rankings for that particular metric alongside Sancho, Robert Lewandowski, and Leon Bailey.
Bayern made it 11 goals in three matches at the weekend after firing five past Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Lewandowski was responsible for two in the 5-0 victory, which puts him on a remarkable 29 Bundesliga goals this campaign.
His first, which came just before the break, was a slammed finish into the empty net but he played a vital part in the build up, too, beautifully flicking into the path of Joshua Kimmich.
The fourth goal of the came ultimately killed off any minute chance of Dusseldorf making an impact on proceedings, and was scored as the Polish hitman sent the ball home with a gorgeous backheel after the assist from Serge Gnabry.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of his performance, however, was arguably his passing statistics as he misplaced just one ball to a team-mate the entire match.
Alphonso Davies's burgeoning Bayern career has been one of the stories of the Bundesliga season, and he is showing no signs in slowing down in his ascent into superstardom.
Although deployed at left-back, he could regularly be found as one of Bayern's most advanced players in the win over Dusseldorf. He scored the fifth and final goal of the game, and it is a testament to his determination that he initially won the ball back on the edge of the box before bulldozing past a couple of tackles, allowing him to slide a finish home.
He sent 19 passes into the final third and also had six touches inside the opposition box, just two less than the highest tally in the Bundesliga. Needless to say the stars who top that list are not full-backs!
HONOURABLE MENTION
Back to Dortmund now, with Thorgan Hazard earning a rating of (8.6) after his goal and assist in the win over Paderborn. He started the match in the centre-forward position in the absence of Erling Haaland, and got a deserved goal with a lovely flicked finish.
ROUND TO FORGET
Not a surprise to see Leopold Zingerle (4) feature here after conceding six goals in 45 minutes for Paderborn versus Dortmund. He did keep the score down a bit with six other saves, but that doesn't make up for the ball hitting the back of his net six times.
