When Bayern Munich fail to win for two games in a row, you know what is coming next. Particularly on a Saturday night showcase, against the sort of good domestic opposition that tend to bring the best out of the champions. It had been a frustrating week, domestically and continentally, in two games on the road. On both occasions they had been caught cold, conceding the Bundesliga’s fastest goal at Augsburg and going 1-0 down in less than 90 seconds in Stavanger.

Vincent Kompany’s low profile on the Allianz Arena touchline, sat almost motionless in his seat on the bench as his team rattled a flurry of goals past poor RB Leipzig, had nothing to do with any lingering chagrin connected to those slow starts from his team. The sporting director, Max Eberl, who stood in for his coach in the post-match press conference, explained that the Belgian had been ill, not to mention Kompany’s current hip problem that had made the move from dressing room to pitch side slow and uncomfortable.

It was good he did not attempt to get up from his vantage point every time his team scored, or he would have been extremely sore in the morning. This was what Kicker referred to as a “Trainingsspiel in der Allianz Arena”. Had it not been for the goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt performing creditably, Leipzig’s club record defeat – a 7-0 loss to Manchester City three and a half years ago – would have been comfortably surpassed. This was carnage.

For Leipzig and their coach, the former Bayern man Martin Demichelis, this was the starkest of reality checks. The media reaction was the same, a sense of disappointment that a supposed competitor to Bayern could offer so little in terms of resistance. Yet there needed to be a recognition too that this was Bayern being their brilliant best; piqued, prickly and poked into action by a potential challenge that they felt compelled to prove wasn’t much of one.

This was a furious clearing of frustration on a number of levels; the need to defend Manuel Neuer after his early error at Augsburg, the industrial scale of chances frittered away in that game, the first-half punking by Viking in midweek, the concession of a late equaliser having come back and the red card for Michael Olise (Eberl had memorably called Viking’s captain, Zlatko Tripic, a “scumbag” for systematically winding up the France midfielder to the point at which he picked up two bookings in the blink of an eye, the second for gently lobbing the ball in Tripic’s face, forcing the latter to throw himself to the ground).

And how that feeling was expelled from the very beginning. Harry Kane called Vandevoordt into action in the opening seconds, but it was only a temporary let-off for the visitors. Luis Díaz steamed on to a Joshua Kimmich pass to fly through the centre of the Leipzig defence and give Bayern the lead in the 12th minute. The Colombian created a second with a delicious pass for the onrushing Aleksandar Pavlovic just before the half-hour, and just after a stunning collective move finished with Kane carving a chance for Olise to finish imperiously.

It was a recital. The move that led to the Pavlovic goal began with Kane steering the ball left from a quarter-back position, maybe 10 to 15 metres in front of his own penalty area. In the second half Díaz fully took centre stage, gathering a Kane pass to chop inside and curl a shot into the far corner, then scurrying the long way around to finish from a central area and complete his hat-trick – not the perfect hat-trick perhaps, but maybe the perfect Luis Díaz hat-trick of centre, from the left and long run around to finish. His first Bundesliga goals since August were scoffed with the demeanour of a famished man.

This version of Díaz will be needed against Arsenal with Olise suspended, and the score settling version of Bayern will be the default too, with this the perfect warm up in that sense, even if Leipzig were more compliant than might have been expected. Nobody in Munich has forgotten their first defeat of last season, 11 months ago, when Arsenal stepped up a gear and showed just how good they had become in a comprehensive second-half display at the Emirates Stadium that led to a 3-1 win. “We have memories of that game,” said Eberl, “and we want to translate those memories into energy this Wednesday.”

There is a sense of this all just being shadow-boxing, of course, in a league stage that Bayern and Arsenal will be expected to graduate from safely in the top eight. Yet any measure of where they are and where they are headed is useful. Even if this was not a win or go home situation, Saturday’s game could be the season kickstarter for Díaz who, as Kimmich said, is extremely valuable to his team in that he is the most likely to make runs behind the defence; more so than Kane, Olise, or any of their midfielders.

“He delivered incredible numbers for us last season,” Kimmich continued (22 goals and 17 assists in Bundesliga and Champions League combined) – and here it was, starting again. Even at this early stage, markers are needed and after Leipzig, Arsenal are Bayern’s next.

Talking points

Bayern ended the weekend on top of the table – ahead of Borussia Dortmund courtesy of, already, a vastly superior goal difference – thanks to previous leader Freiburg’s first loss of the season, on Sunday afternoon at Bayer Leverkusen. Julian Schuster’s side had taken an early lead at BayArena, with the in-form Derry Scherhant concluding a flowing team move but Leverkusen hit back in arguably their first proper test at home. The brilliant Ibrahim Maza quickly equalised and then laid on the second-half winner for Patrick Schick – who has now scored in each of the opening six games of the season – with a sublime assist. Maza explained to DAZN how his escape from a clutch of Freiburg defenders was straight out of his Berlin childhood. “Just playing in the cage, just improvising and going for it.”

Level with Schick at the top of the scoring charts is one Niclas Füllkrug, who scored for a fifth game in a row as his brace brought Werder Bremen back from 2-0 down to draw with Paderborn – the third straight game in which Werder have recovered from a two-goal deficit to take a point or more. Daniel Thioune spoke afterwards about how the (maybe soon-to-be-again?) Germany striker is raising the standards of those around him – including the coach himself. “Niclas expects a lot from a coach,” he said. “It’s not just what he does on the pitch, but also what happens in the locker room. Niclas is never too proud to go the extra mile.”

Dortmund’s tired performance in a goalless draw with Union in Berlin was a second straight scoreless game but their fellow Champions League participants Stuttgart are in a worse state, glued into the bottom six by a defeat in Hamburg in which they missed a raft of chances. “We’re not a top team right now,” bemoaned Deniz Undav.