Those predicting the venue of Vincent Kompany’s first Bundesliga defeat as Bayern Munich manager might not have had this one circled in red on their fixture calendar. Maybe they should have, though. This is becoming the Rekordmeister’s new favourite banana skin. After a fourth league loss at Mainz in five seasons one could place the 05ers in the small pantheon of relative Bayern-slayers, besides Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Mönchengladbach. That, though, would be conveniently forgetting Bayern’s stroll here in the DfB Pokal six weeks ago or their 8-1 demolition of Bo Henriksen’s team in Munich last spring.
More currently, the injury situation that worked Eric Dier into a first Bundesliga start of the season and left Daniel Peretz and Thomas Müller standing in for Manuel Neuer and Harry Kane left clues on the teamsheet. The signs had been there in last Tuesday’s Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk in Gelsenkirchen, with 5-1 impressive on paper but flatteringly garnished with late goals, including Michael Olise’s extraordinary solo effort. This was a weary, worn-out looking Bayern that had a virtual monopoly on possession but created very little in the way of real goalscoring opportunities.
