Thomas Tuchel's golden start has Bayern Munich believing again

The morning after the night before in Bavaria and the front page headline of Bild confirmed that normal service has been resumed.

‘Alles wie immer’ were the words chosen to describe Thomas Tuchel’s first night as Bayern Munich manager and, at first glance, you would think it is ‘Everything as always’: Borussia Dortmund flopped when they had to find a new level and a 4-2 defeat at the Allianz Arena is likely to cost them the title.

Bayern returned to the top of the table and their fans, who do not lack for self-belief, relished booming out the club anthem, particularly the lyrics, ‘FC Bayern, forever No 1!’ as a crazy opening 45 minutes changed the course of the campaign.

Plenty of casual observers will have looked at this result, too, and wondered whether Pep Guardiola was about to face his old club at the worst time. He knows better than anyone the obsession in Bavaria with winning the Champions League and thrashing Dortmund suggests Bayern are primed.

But that isn’t the case. Bayern’s players, usually so forthright and certain about their potential, are anxious about next week’s trip to Manchester. Everything, in that respect, isn’t as always and Joshua Kimmich articulated it best.

‘We have to be focused,’ said Kimmich. ‘Fortunately everyone is fit and everyone is healthy, with the exception of Manu (Neuer) and Lucas (Hernandez). It is crucial for us to have everyone in the squad because this week is going to be tough. We have to beat Freiburg in the German Cup and then again in the Bundesliga. After that? We know City are waiting. We have to win every game. It sounds easy — but it’s tough.

‘Everyone felt at the beginning against Dortmund we were a bit nervous and the pressure was really high. Then there was a bit of luck that we scored the first goal. We needed the goal so we had to be happy. But this wasn’t our best performance.’

Kimmich wasn’t saying this for effect. Dortmund flew out of the traps and caused anxiety in the home defence but everything changed when, inexplicably, Gregor Kobel took a wild swing when trying to clear a through ball from Dayot Upamecano and watched it roll into an empty net.

For 35 minutes thereafter, Bayern were superb. They have speedy forwards who will test City and only poor finishing stopped them scoring six, rather than another two through Thomas Muller, before the interval. What happened after, though, is something Guardiola will home in on.

Bayern, at 4-0 ahead through Kingsley Coman, went to sleep. Jude Bellingham kept trying to chivvy Dortmund forward and, in the last 20 minutes, it led to two goals, one via a penalty from Emre Can, the other from Donyell Malen left Tuchel cursing furiously.

Bayern defender Matthijs De Ligt said: ‘We are coming into the critical months, and we are still in every competition. Now we have to be strong and to be mentally ready to win every game. We have to win every game. We are Bayern, this is our focus, always.

‘The reason I came here was to be in this situation and try to win every trophy. City is a big test but it is still 10 days away.’

Perhaps, but time moves quickly and Tuchel will have his work cut out trying to get things as he wants them. For all that he has a stellar record against Guardiola, including one glorious night with Chelsea in the Champions League final in Porto, it will be some feat to do it again.

Tuchel had a smile on his face when he explained how his first week in Munich had been — ‘work, eat, sleep, repeat,’ — but he was rather more circumspect when explaining why he had remained on the periphery through the Dortmund game.

He was barely visible on the touchline, was not introduced to the crowd before kick-off and did not wave to them at full-time. He was brought in to win and make sure everything is as always.

‘I have arrived here late in the season,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t the right time to put myself in the middle of it. Now I’m happy when my players can show their potential.

‘My job is to try to help them. I want them to fulfil their potential as a team, I try to influence them and create a good environment where everybody wants to come to work. But for now, all the other stuff, I’m happy to stay out of it.’

And that, quite simply, is because he must make Bayern stay in the Champions League.