“After 25 minutes, I looked up and thought to myself, I’m about to faint.”
Joshua Kimmich’s description of win against on Tuesday is not only a testament to the intensity of the first half, but also to the furious manner in which the Bundesliga side have started the 2025-26 season.
In short, this is the best ever start to a season in Europe’s top five leagues. When Bayern reached 14 straight wins, they broke the 33-year record set by Italian side AC Milan back in the 1992-93 season. And now, by beating the current holders in the French capital despite playing the entire second half with 10 men, Bayern Munich have reached 16 consecutive victories.
In that time they have scored 33 goals in nine games – their second best haul (they managed 34 in the 2023-24 season, which set a new Bundesliga record). In the , their perfect start is perhaps only eclipsed by Arsenal, who have also won all four games so far but have done so without conceding a goal.
Kompany gets it right
This is truly a historic start, and at the helm is head coach . For a man who was not first choice and whose arrival was met with a fair bit of skepticism after his Burnley side were relegated from the Premier League, his ability to juggle the many challenges that come with being Bayern Munich boss is commendable.
Under his leadership, Bayern’s intensity looks not only greater but better implemented, as evidenced by the first 45 minutes in Paris. Equally, the threat of the front three behind Harry Kane of Luis Diaz, a reborn Serge Gnabry and Michael Olise is full of variety and flair and has a balance to it the likes of which Bayern hasn’t seen in years. The fact it has all been done is both surprising and intriguing for Bayern’s future.
Kompany appears to have also got the stars in this team working together rather than worrying about themselves, as the disciplined second 45 minutes in Paris showed. Even the chat about Harry Kane and Manuel Neuer’s futures have been calmed by everyone involved. Neuer, the 39-year-old goalkeeper, was sensational in the second half, proving that clearly, this team is focused on the here and now. And that might be their greatest superpower.
The 39-year-old Belgian coach has Bayern set up for perhaps not only one of its greatest seasons but one of the greatest seasons in football history. in which they were only one game away from completing an unbeaten treble shows that an unbeaten league season is no longer just an idea but a very tangible reality, certainly for a club as ambitious as Bayern Munich.
History with a happy end?
The last time Bayern Munich started a season this well was 2015, Pep Guardiola was the coach, and they won 12 straight before Arsenal broke their perfect start in the Champions League. Nevertheless, that season ended with a domestic double and a
Indeed, the striking similarities don’t end there. Ten years ago, Robert Lewandowski had scored 12 goals after nine Bundesliga games, including his famous 5 goal, . This season, , which also happens to be more goals than eight other teams’ totals in the Bundesliga.
Perhaps more important than an unbeaten league season is another Champions League title. It has been last won this competition in 2020, beating PSG in the final at the end of a season which included a
Many have applied an asterisk to that victory given it with a different format. Since then, they have reached the quarterfinals four times and the semifinals once. With Europe’s biggest clubs increasingly obsessed with European success, it is clear that this competition is the one everyone wants.
Perhaps this will all end when Bayern play Arsenal in the Champions League at the end of the month. Perhaps Union Berlin will surprise everyone and burst bubble this weekend. But right now, Vincent Kompany and Bayern Munich are in historic form and, if the players can stay healthy, it looks very hard to bet against them.
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