Lewis Holtby scored a goal and had a hand in three others as surprise leader Mainz maintained its perfect record in the Bundesliga with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Hoffenheim on Saturday.
The champion in both of those seasons was Borussia Dortmund, which is second at the moment with 15 points ahead of its showdown at home on Sunday against Bayern Munich.
Mainz grabbed the lead after just two minutes. Adam Szalai beat the offside trap to collect Holtby's pass and the Hungarian squared the ball for Sami Allagui to slot into the empty net.
Mainz was inches from doubling the lead in the 36th minute but Hoffenheim 'keeper Tom Starke pushed Christian Fuchs' free kick onto the right post and then collected the loose ball.
Hoffenheim equalized in the 41st minute on the counter attack with Luiz Gustavo feeding a through ball to Demba Ba, who superbly poked home past Mainz keeper Christian Wetklo.
Mainz struck just two minutes after the restart with Holtby sending a classy looping pass to Szalai, who shot first time past Starke.
Holtby scored a deserved goal of his own in the 59th after some clever dribbling on the right wing and the young German's shot deflected off Luiz Gustavo and past Starke.
Hoffenheim made it 3-2 in the 64th with a free kick by Gylfi Thor Sigurdsson, but its hopes of a comeback were hit when Josip Simunic was red carded with 18 minutes remaining for bringing down Holtby in the area. Andre Schuerrle stepped up to the spot and converted the penalty to seal the win.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar equalized in the 74th minute but Andreas Wolf gave Nuremberg the win in the 83rd.
Schalke remained on four points in 17th place while Nuremberg has nine.
Hamburg fell behind 1-0 after just three minutes at home to Kaiserslautern, but Gojko Kacar scored in the 69th and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting struck the winner in the 84th.
Borussia Moenchengladbach ended Wolfsburg's three-game winning streak with a 1-1 draw at home, while Jan Rosenthal scored two goals as Freiburg beat Cologne 3-2.
Also on Sunday, Bayer Leverkusen welcomes Werder Bremen and Stuttgart takes on Eintracht Frankfurt.
