Bayern Go Top After More Than a Year in Exile; Welcome "Neverkusen"!

Leverkusen made a bit of history themselves during the weekend. However, Leverkusen will perhaps be ruing Per Mertesacker's last minute equalizer that denied them a two-point lead over Bayern during the weekend before last or their 0-0 draw at home against fierce local rivals Koln yesterday.

Bayern are back to the top of the table. This is the first time that they lead since May 2008, when they were champions.

Bayern played poorly to begin with. Bayern were good defensively but rather average in an attacking sense. The final scoreline was 1-0 thanks to a brilliant Franck Ribery strike.

The name of the goal scorer might suggest that he had a good night; in fact, quite the contrary. Ribery got the ball on his feet enough times. However, he was never able to find the killer pass for Gomez or Muller. His partner in crime, Arjen Robben, had quite a dismal night as well. He was well marked by Jerome Boateng and shut out for most of the night. His free kicks were very disappointing.

If Robben's free kicks were bad, Piotr Trochowski's on the other end were worse. He first of all missed a glorious chance to give his side the lead in Bavaria, his home for a few years. Later, he fired two freekicks wide from the same position.

Diego Contento did well in defence. He has settled in very well like his fellow youngsters in the Bayern defence.  Holger Badtsuber's confidence was there for all to be seen as he kept on clearing the ball, not allowing it to go through to his keeper and thus protecting Jorg-Butt. Philipp Lahm did well in defence and then, even went on one of his mazy runs.

He decided to pass it rather than go for the shot himself which turned out to be a poor decision.

Either Van Gaal wanted to save Mario Gomez's face in front of the on-watching Joachim Low and his assistant Hansi Flick or he wanted to give Miro Klose a chance to show the national coach that he still plays a few minutes here and there. Gomez was well marked and thus couldn't do much. Van Gaal took him off in the 65th minute.

Miro Klose did well and found it easy to trouble the Hamburg defenders, something which Gomez didn't manage to do.

Thomas Muller was active as usual but the end product was lacking. Joachim Low perhaps wasn't very pleased with his crosses. Ivica Olic was eventually brought on to replace the German. Even Anatoliy Tymoschuk got some minutes at the end as Bayern looked to protect their lead at the end.

Mark Van Bommel and Bastian Schweinsteiger had good nights defensively as they put in good tackles but their final balls were always lacking. Schweini, though, had the last laugh as it was his pinpoint cross that found Ribery in the 77th minute. The Frenchman dribbled into the six yard area and fired an unstoppable shot past Wolfgang Hesl into the back of the net.

As for Jorg-Butt, he had only one save to make the entire night and did so brilliantly following an unstoppable drive from that Bavarian, Trochowski.

Bert Van Marwijk must have been pleased to see the performances of both Elijero Elia and Joris Mathijsen. He must have also been pleased with his son-in-law, Van Bommel's temperament. Van Bommel made very few "crazy" tackles and generally produced a smile or two. He might not be happy to see him diving though.

The game on the entirety seemed to be in Bayern's hands. Hamburg hardly looked menacing on the attack and Bayern just seemed to be lacking the final touch. Bayern seemed content to play in long balls at times. At the end though, Bayern marked their 110th anniversary with a win over southern rivals, Hamburger SV.

Bayer Leverkusen had an interesting weekend. By not losing, they set a Bundesliga record of going 24 matches unbeaten- a record previously held by Bayern at 23. It seems though that Leverkusen have finally broken apart.

Considering their past, very few can expect Leverkusen to come back up, despite the fact that the difference in points is only two. This title race looks to be settled already at the moment.

Leverkusen will be hoping that Koln will be able to take off some points from Bayern next week.