Bayern Munich: Five takeaways from narrow win over Arminia Bielefeld

Bayern Munich recorded their tenth victory of the Bundesliga season with a 1-0 win over visiting Arminia Bielefeld. Despite registering 22 shots in the match, Bayern was only able to find the back of the net once as Leroy Sane delivered the lone goal of the game in the 71st minute. Here are five takeaways from the home victory.

Clean sheet

Bayern was able to record their first clean sheet since October 23rd when they defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0. Entering this match, they had gone six consecutive fixtures without recording a shutout. Bayern now has four clean sheets in 13 Bundesliga matches this season.

Thomas Muller reaches ten assists

With his assist on Sane’s second-half goal,  Thomas Muller recorded his tenth Bundesliga assist of the season. This is the ninth time in his career he’s registered ten assists or more in the German top-flight. With 21 matches remaining in the domestic campaign, Muller is on pace for another impressive assist total. His career-best was in the 2019/20 season when he finished with 21 assists in 33 appearances.

A goal-filled year

According to OptaFranz, Bayern has now scored 102 Bundesliga goals in 2021. This is the most goals scored by a single club in a calendar year in the Bundesliga. With four more league fixtures to be played this calendar year, it’s very likely this record will be extended even further by Die Roten.

Robert Lewandowski’s scoring streak snapped

Entering this fixture, Lewandowski had scored in each of his last five Bundesliga appearances. Unfortunately, his scoring streak came to an end on Saturday as he failed to score in a match for the first time this month. The Bayern striker still leads the league in goals scored with 14 goals. Second place in the Bundesliga top scorer race, Erling Haaland, did close the gap with his tenth goal of the season in Borussia Dortmund’s 3-1 win over Wolfsburg.

Offensive production slows down

November will see Bayern record their fewest number of Bundesliga goals so far this season. After recording nine goals in August, 14 in September, and 15 in October, it was certainly a drop in goal production in November as they registered just four goals in the league this month. Despite this drop in goals, Bayern still has a dominant goal differential of +29 and has scored nine more goals than Dortmund who have scored the second-most goals in the Bundesliga. It will be interesting to see the number of goals the four league matches in December yield in terms of offensive production. November could prove to be the lowest scoring month for Bayern in their 2021/22 Bundesliga campaign.