24 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
2‑1 against Porto, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Luis Díaz was at the centre of the description.
Harry Kane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.64, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
21 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Bayern Munich supporters have already started telling it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dayot Upamecano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
With 14 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Harry Kane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dayot Upamecano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ismael Saibari provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alphonso Davies provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Harry Kane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Gregor Walter, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bayern Munich will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 14 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayern Munich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Borussia Dortmund; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Schmitt has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bayern Munich told Konrad Laimer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bayern Munich will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayern Munich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
7 goals in one match, Jamal Musiala on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bayern Munich and Hamburger SV.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Bayern Munich asked and VfB Stuttgart said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bayern Munich will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. VfB Stuttgart will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 13 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dayot Upamecano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alphonso Davies and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.