BERLIN (Reuters) - Talking points from the Bundesliga weekend:
GLADBACH RUN
It was supposed to be a title race between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund this season but so far it is a different Borussia who are setting the pace.
Borussia Moenchengladbach earned their seventh win in their last eight league games when the eased past VfL Wolfsburg 3-1 to go four points clear at the top.
Gladbach have not been top of the table for five straight weeks since their last title-winning season 42 years ago.
FRUSTRATED OPPONENTS
Low-budget Freiburg have been equally surprising, leaving their opponents frustrated as they charge up the standings to fourth place. Their most recent victims were Eintracht Frankfurt, Freiburg captain Nils Peters netting the winner in a 1-0 victory.
Frankfurt captain David Abraham faces a ban after being sent off for deliberately crashing into Freiburg coach Christian Streich, throwing him to the ground in stoppage time.
"Abraham is obviously an extremely emotional player, a young buffalo," Streich, whose team are level on points with second-placed RB Leipzig and Bayern, said. "He blew a fuse.
"But let's calm down. Football is a fighting sport. It was a hot game and now we calm down and don't need to make a big thing out of it."
Abraham has since apologised to Streich.
CALM RESTORED
Interim Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick has restored a sense of calm at the champions after winning the two matches he has been in charge of, including their 4-0 demolition of Dortmund.
Flick is now likely to stay on past the international break after giving club bosses more time to think about a permanent successor to the sacked Niko Kovac.
ADVERTISEMENT(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Peter Rutherford)