File picture of Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola (right) and his assistant Domenec Torrent during a training session.

DPA
Berlin

Rampant Bayern Munich host Borussia Dortmund in a Bundesliga table-topper on Sunday amid fears that another win by the champions will all but decide the title race early in the season.
Bayern lead the way with a maximum 21 points and can equal their best start, from the treble-winning 2012-13 campaign, if they beat Dortmund who are four points behind.
“Will Bayern become champions on Sunday?” Kicker sports magazine asked on its front page Thursday, adding that “boredom looms with another Bayern win.”
Bayern would go seven clear of Dortmund with victory, and a five ahead of Schalke if they beat Cologne. Fourth-placed Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen are currently nine points behind.
“Of course I can understand that everyone wants to see us lose.  That’s normal,” admitted Munich defender Jerome Boateng, and Wolfsburg general manager Klaus Allofs conceded “the way it looks right now we won’t have an exciting season at the top.”
Bayern ran away with the title in the past three seasons and are now after an unprecedented fourth in a row.
They have won the 10 games in all competitions since losing the season-opening German super cup at last season’s runners-up Wolfsburg, some of them lucky thanks to last minute goals against Hoffenheim and Augsburg, others convincing such as 3-0 over Leverkusen and 5-1 against Wolfsburg.
That game last week is best remembered for Robert Lewandowski’s five-goal haul in just nine minutes, and the Poland striker has added another five in the following two games, including a Champions League hat-trick against Dinamo Zagreb Tuesday.
Lewandowski is the Bundesliga top scorer with 10 goals as he faces his former club but Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is right behind on nine and the first player in the Bundesliga to score in each of the first seven games.
Aubameyang was rested along with Mats Hummels, Ilkay Guendogan and other key players for Dortmund’s Europa League date at PAOK Salonica Thursday night.

bit of a stutter
Dortmund are unbeaten in their 13 games in all competitions but have stuttered lately with two Bundesliga draws against Hoffenheim and Darmstadt.
The 2011 and 2012 champions have however raised their game against Munich in the past and won four of the last seven games there.
But sports director Michael Zorc has no illusions that Munich are streaks ahead overall and that his side must perform at their very best in order to have a chance.
“We will try to get the best result possible out of the game. This is not about dominance in the league,” he told Kicker. “Bayern Munich were the pre-season favourites and they are living up to it.”
Munich coach Pep Guardiola, the players and their families visited Munich’s famous beer fest, the Oktoberfest, Wednesday. They have not lost a domestic game in five years during the 16-day fest and aim to continue the trend although Thomas Mueller expects an exciting match.
“It will be a top match at its finest. The German footballing family is really looking forward to Sunday,” Mueller said.
The other Sunday game apart from the topper in Munich and Schalke v Cologne is Leverkusen v Augsburg while the round opens Friday with a regional derby between Darmstadt and Mainz.
On Saturday, Borussia Moenchengladbach host Wolfsburg in a duel of Champions League losers against the Manchester teams City and United respectively, bottom side Hanover play Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin meet SV Hamburg, Hoffenheim v VfB Stuttgart and Ingolstadt v Eintracht Frankfurt.