Borussia Dortmund made it four wins in four Bundesliga games this season after they saw off VfB Stuttgart 1-0 at the MHPArena on Saturday.
Maximilian Beier scored the only goal of the game in the 70th minute from a lovely Jobe Bellingham through ball which proved enough to seal all three points for them.
Stuttgart enjoyed more possession and mustered more shots on target but Dortmund weathered the storm to grow into the match and prevail from one moment of pure attacking quality.
With Freiburg dropping points to Eintracht Frankfurt earlier in the day, Niko Kovac's side remain the only team with a 100% win record in the competition, their best league start since 2015.
Here are the key talking points from the match:
1) Beier sends message to Klopp
Just days before this clash, Jurgen Klopp had announced his first squad(s) for Germany's upcoming fixtures and Maximilian Beier was among the marquee absences. While Nico Schlotterbeck, Felix Nmecha and Waldemar Anton made the cut, the 23-year-old was overlooked, which felt strange given his encouraging start to the new season.
Coming into Saturday's clash, Beier has three assists in six appearances for the BVB in all competitions. Against Stuttgart, he also opened his goalscoring account for the first time this season, producing a quality finish from close-range to make up for his earlier miss from a header. It also offers plenty of food for thought for Klopp too, who may have underestimated him.
2) No happy return for Guirassy
Since making the switch from Stuttgart to Dortmund in 2024, Serhou Guirassy hasn't enjoyed much luck back at the MHPArena, his old stomping ground. His first visit as a BVB produced one goal, but the visitors were tormented in a 5-1 loss; he failed to score in their next although Die Borussen prevailed 2-0.
On Saturday, the 31-year-old striker was back in familiar surroundings and saw his current team prevail once more but failed to make any mark in the match. He was surprisingly underwhelming, boxed up by Stuttgart for the most part while two of his three attempts at goal were also blocked. Kovac put him out of his misery after 74 minutes.
3) Substitutes work like a charm again
Niko Kovac is the king of impact substitutions at this point. He refurbished the title once again on Saturday with some wise calls in the second half that proved pivotal in turning the contest in Dortmund's favor.
He threw in Konstantinos Karetsas and Jobe Bellingham after the hour mark, and both combined to produce the goal for Beier. Karetsas found Bellingham near the edge of the box and the midfielder sent a low-drive across the face of the goal for Beier to comfortably tap home.
This was Dortmund's seventh goal already this season which involved substitutes.
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