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Well, even now it's still too early to decide on the championship but for the mid-season and the end of the season too I don't think there will be much change here as the only possible additions are Dortmund and Leipzig which every year they are always in the Champions League zone and join the competition.
Last season there were a few other clubs that could have been in the mix but for now dark horse clubs like Freiburg and Union are still underperforming so maybe they will be excluded now.
For VFB they had a great start to the season and we saw that they improved a lot this season but in the last few games we saw how they started to have problems so I would also rule them out.
It definitely too early to decide the champion, so many things have changed in this season just as if they substituted each other, take a look at union Berlin that finished last season in fourth position are now in last position when match is still in 11 game while VfB Stuttgart that were battling not to relegate are now sitting comfortably in third point living behind second runner-up of last season with two points interval and Leipzig in the fourth position have one point in between, VfB Stuttgart performance this season show how serious the want to make it to champion league next season.
It may not be right to compare last year with this year because the teams have changed a lot. Transfers were made, new coaches arrived. Changes have been made in all teams and the example of Union Berlin shows us this. Last year's performance and this year's performance may be very different. While Bayern maintains its second place, Leverkusen maintains the leadership with Xabi. This year is going out of the ordinary.
I think so too, this season Bundesliga is running outside the ordinary because of the emergence of a new axis of strength namely Laverkusen. Dortmund habit of being a strong competitor to Munchen, but until the 11th week, Xabi Alonso squad replaced their role in challenging for the championship trophy. Dormund seemed to be tired after trying for a decade but always failing.
Ups and downs in performance cannot be avoided, I think there are many factors behind the decline in a team performance. Union Berlin is indeed a perfect example of this, they surprised everyone by qualifying for the UCL last season, but have now failed miserably in both competitions.
I agree that at the moment it is too early to guess which club will win the trophy at the end of the season, many things will happen in the remainder of the season. Xabi with Laverkusen was phenomenal, but Munchen consistency for a decade is not an easy thing to break.