The race for the Bundesliga being over before spring has sprung? Of course. Plus ça change, wake me up when it’s summer and all the rest. This time, though, it’s not Bayern Munich calling time at the inn but of all teams, Bayer Leverkusen.
Sunday’s win just down the road at Köln for Leverkusen did what Harry Kane’s stoppage-time winner for Bayern prevented against Leipzig in the previous weekend. Still-unbeaten Leverkusen now have a 10-point cushion over the perpetual champions at the top with only 10 games left. Granit Xhaka, a hugely influential presence for the (we can say it, even if they can’t) champions-elect all season, warned afterwards of his experience of a big lead being reeled in by the division’s superpower at Arsenal last season. “I explain to them what happened,” he told ESPN’s Archie Rhind-Tutt of his discourse to his teammates, “but you can’t explain with words. You have to feel it.”
