Out of all the teams in the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1, only three remain undefeated: Real Madrid, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.
It’s not that surprising to see Real Madrid as part of that list, as they lead the La Liga table with a six point lead over Sevilla. They’ve been practically unbeatable since Zinedine Zidane took over, and have dropped just six points this season: A streak of three consecutive draws against Villarreal, Las Palmas and Eibar back in late September to early October, but they’ve picked the pace since then, winning six consecutive matches as they head into the Camp Nou on Saturday for the first Clasico of the season.
Hoffenheim are the least impressive club on the list, ranked fifth in the Bundesliga with only five wins in the first 12 matches. However, they still haven’t lost, drawing 7 times, holding their own against league leaders Red Bull Leipzig on the opening match and drawing with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. It’s hard to see the small club which has been a surprise each season it manages to stay up actually competing for the title (they’re 8 points behind Leipzig), but standing their ground and maybe making their way into European competition is possible.
Red Bull Leipzig are a controversial entity, with fans in other leagues (Especially Austria) not really fond of the energy drink company taking over a football club and rebranding it completely. And while there are issues of concern in a league that’s mostly about fan having control of their clubs, it’s not that different from Bayer Leverkusen or Wolfsburg. Leipzig are new, which is good and bad for them at the same time.
But moral issues aside, it’s incredible what they’ve been doing this season so far. They’ve broken the Dortmund and Bayern duopoly, and leading the Bundesliga after 12 matches, ahead of Bayern by 3 points. The newly promoted club beat Dortmund in the second week of the season, and have to play in Munich against Bayern, in what will be their biggest test to date, although they have three matches before that to try and hold onto their lead until then. If Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg keep scoring, they just might hold onto it.