Pep sets new gold standard

As well as earning Bayern Munich three more points towards what looks odds-on to be their next domestic title, Robert Lewandowski's 36th-minute header at his old Signal Iduna Park stomping ground on Matchday 27 also secured the head coach another page of his own in the Bundesliga record books.

The defending champions' 1-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund made it 50 wins in Germany's top flight for Pep Guardiola – in only his 61st game at the helm.

It sounds impressive, and it is. The previous record for hitting the 50-win milestone was set by the late, great Udo Lattek, way back in 1972, in his 78th match in charge of the Munich club. Another Bayern coach, Pal Csernai (81 games), got within sight of Lattek's best-mark in 1981, but Guardiola has now taken it into a new dimension altogether.

Tactical adaptability

Having been denied the round figure of 50 in 60 on the previous matchday, as party-poopers Borussia Mönchengladbach departed the Allianz Arena with a 2-0 win in the bag, Guardiola and his charges bounced back in both typical and atypical fashion on the home turf of their arch-rivals of recent years.

Typical, by dint of their response to a defeat in itself – they have only once lost two games running in the league under the Catalan tactician's watch, and that when the title was already in the bag last season – but atypical in the manner they went about it.

Missing several key players, wide duo Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben among them, Guardiola opted for an unusually deep-lying strategy of containment. His side still shaded overall possession, but the 51 percent share was their lowest in a domestic fixture since Guardiola took the helm – as was the figure of seven attempts on goal.

Lewandowski and Thomas Müller were the only regular attacking players to start the game but, against revived and fired-up opponents, Bayern gave a clear demonstration of the formidable defensive shield in their armoury as well.

This was one aspect of their game which retained something of an air of mystery to it in Guardiola's debut season in the job, when the team's invariably overwhelming domination of possession meant they were rarely stretched at the back on their way to an early title wrap. They eventually finished 19 points clear of second-place Dortmund, racking up 94 goals in the process and conceding a miserly 23.

Full-backs recommissioned

It was, to say the least, a promising start to the Guardiola project in Munich, with this football perfectionist working diligently and continuously to further fine-tune his team on both the tactical and personnel fronts.

When he arrived in the summer of 2013, his last line of defence was already firmly in situ and any residual doubts as to Manuel Neuer's status as the world's best keeper have been comprehensively dispelled in the interim, his match-defining blunder in the aforementioned meeting with Mönchengladbach notwithstanding.

The unflappable custodian followed up with a standard-issue clean sheet at Dortmund and Bayern remain on course to beat their own 2012/13 league record of just 18 goals against.

That takes more than just a great keeper, of course, and in front of Neuer, Jerome Boateng and Dante have been Guardiola's central defensive pairing of choice, although long-term injuries to Javi Martinez and the recently returned Holger Badstuber have left Guardiola extensively deprived of two players who look certain to feature prominently in his plans from here on in.

One whose Bayern career has meanwhile certainly benefited from the new coaching regime is Rafinha. Guardiola moved the Brazilian right-back in from the fringe straight away, citing above all his match intelligence and disinclination to squander possession. Rafinha's cause was further helped by Philipp Lahm's successful redeployment in a deep-lying midfield role, one the skipper by his own admission is “enjoying immensely.”

So, too, is David Alaba, Lahm's one-time fellow full-back on the left flank. After occupying his usual position for the greater part of last season, the Austrian supertalent is now finding himself ever more often right at the heart of the action. This, indeed, is turning out to be the campaign that establishes his credentials as the box-to-box midfielder for which his technique, physique and natural urge to get forward seem tailor-made. Juan Bernat, signed last summer from Valencia CF, has slotted into Alaba's left-sided role and is filling it with increasing authority.

Team players first, superstars second

Two more of Guardiola's Spanish compatriots wasted absolutely no time making their own indelible mark on the German top flight. Thiago Alcantara – the one name on the new coach's initial shopping list – set a Bundesliga record of 177 ball contacts before he, too, found himself sidelined by a knee injury from which he has only just returned after a year out.

In the interim, that best-mark has been recalibrated at 206 by Xabi Alonso, who settled into the role of Bayern playmaker general almost instantaneously after being snapped up from Real Madrid at the end of August last.

Bayern have an equal embarrassment of riches up front and if Ribery was making the biggest waves last season, this time around it is Robben who has been the absolute star of the frontline show, harnessing his pace and near-unrivalled ability one-on-one more effectively for the good of the team than ever before. Alongside him Thomas Müller, once again in his still-young career, has demonstrated the capacity for adapting to a new system, aided by his sixth sense for being in the right place at the right time.

As of this season, Bayern have Robert Lewandowski leading the line for them, arguably the most complete centre-forward in the world game at the moment. The Poland international has also increasingly found his place in the Guardiola system and a late goal flurry could yet see him retain the top scorer's crown he won for the first time last year.

Bayern's other ex-Dortmund superstar, Mario Götze, is now in his second season with the record champions and the World Cup final hero's particular skill-set is, and will surely remain for a long time to come, a key component of a great side, whose remarkable coach seems destined to guide them to many more records yet.