Leverkusen v Eintracht
Mainz v Nurnberg
Bayern v Schalke
Monchengladbach v Stuttgart
Bochum v Freiburg
Hoffenheim v Wolfsburg
Hannover v Hamburg
Bremen v Dortmund
Hertha v Cologne
Top game this week sees Bayern host Schalke. Bayern is not a happy club at the moment, two hapless showings against Bordeaux all but knocking them out of the Champions League while Schalke have been doing remarkably well considering the off-field turmoil the club is in. Felix Magath has an amazing ability to insulate his players from such matters, perhaps drawing on experience of being his own chief executive and sporting director while at Wolfsburg. There's still no Franck Ribéry available to Louis van Gaal, but Arjen Robben is in line for a start having come off the bench in midweek.
While tension will be high in Munich, for entertainment you need to be at the Rhein-Neckar Arena in Hoffenheim where the champions are in town. Dietmar Hopp, owner of the Villagers, has targeted European football next season in order to hang onto his top players and they've been going well of late. Wolfsburg's form is patchier, but a good win in the Champions League shows what they're capable of. Zvejzdan Misimovic in particular is in top nick at the moment and Grafite has a job on to get his place back from Obafemi Martins. This should be a great game with plenty of goals. Bremen welcome Dortmund to the Weserstadion in what looks another exciting game and the other front-runners have winnable games, Leverkusen in the Friday game against Eintracht and Hamburg away to Hannover.
Hertha won a game in midweek! No, really. Mind, it was against the frankly awful Heerenveen and they take on another rubbish team this week when Cologne go to the capital. Bochum against Freiburg looks apt in the days following Halloween, as does Gladbach against Stuttgart. Nurnberg are still in trouble and Mainz won't be giving any favours away.
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