Last teams standing: How Bayern, Juventus & Liverpool kept their 100% records where Barcelona and Chelsea failed

Coming into this weekend’s games there were five sides across Europe’s top five leagues with a 100% record, that’s now down to three.

It’s absurd that we’re approaching the end of September and there are still so many teams that have won all their games across every competition, but that’s the way this season has shaken out.

The question is, which of the teams ended up losing their perfect record, and why did they lose it? And how did the three sides that maintained their records do so? We had a look:

100% – Liverpool

7 games, 7 wins

The Reds were pitted against Southampton at home. Now, playing one’s feeder club can be tricky as there’s usually a reason you keep on buying their players. But Saints came to Anfield in inconsistent form, and with Liverpool coming off the high of a last-minute win over PSG, you had a feeling this match was only going one way.

Klopp took the opportunity to unleash all three of his famous forwards and new signing Xherdan Shaqiri. With the idea being that this fearsome foursome would be too much attacking power for their visitors. This proved to be the right call, sort of.

Sure, Liverpool got the win because things are just rolling for them right now; with the opening goal that set the tone 10 minutes in came after a tepid Shaqiri shot rebounded off two Southampton players into the back of the net; And the third goal was because Shaqiri’s free-kick struck the woodwork in such a way that saw it bounce perfectly for Mohamed Salah to simply stab home.

But as you may have noticed both of those key goals came from the drive of Shaqiri, the major change Klopp made to the line-up. The German rotated his side in a positive manner, he was proactive, and thus got the desired result to keep Liverpool’s 100% record going.

87.5% – Barcelona

8 games, 7 wins

Barcelona had begun the season in the same kind of relentless form that they displayed for much of all last season as they regained their league title from Real Madrid and came within one game of an undefeated season. This season they were doing even better, firing off victories all over the place.

Against Girona, things started off in a similar vein. Barcelona were dominating the game and they even took the lead through Leo Messi. Things were heading for a straightforward home win when Clement Lenglet got a shock red card with 10 minutes to go in the first half. The decision wasn’t given by the on-field referee but was referred to him by VAR.

Did Lenglet elbow Pere Pons? It’s hard to say. On the one hand, his arm does swing around in a very strange motion. But on the other hand he had just won the ball, so why would he actually do it? Nevertheless, he went off and instantly the tide turned. Ernesto Valverde neglected to bring Samuel Umtiti on straight away and this led to Barcelona retreating into defence.

Thus Girona took control of the match. They equalised late in the half, capitalising on a retreating Blaugrana defence and an error from Gerard Piqué. Umtiti came on at half-time but Girona were rocking; and they rolled right over Piqué again to blast home their second, taking a shock lead. Barça eventually regrouped, regained control of the match and equalised (through who else but Piqué) but they couldn’t overcome their man disadvantage and get a win.

Of course, had Valverde brought Umtiti on straight away after the Lenglet red card, then Barcelona would have carried on dominating the game through possession. His pragmatism and “wait-and-see” attitude let Girona back into a game they were out of, and ended up costing Barcelona their 100% record.

100% – Bayern Munich

7 games, 7 wins

Bayern Munich always dominate the Bundesliga; they’ve won the last six editions of the competition and their dominion over German football is unquestioned. This weekend they faced Schalke 04, a team they haven’t lost to since December 2010. They have drawn with them four times since then, however, including two seasons ago in February 2017.

But Bayern got lucky as Schalke came into this match in abysmal form; they had lost all three of their league games prior to this and scraped a draw in the Champions League thanks to a miraculous performance from goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann. So the likelyhood of them ending Bayern’s 100% start was always low, and when James Rodriguez headed Bayern into an 8th minute lead from a corner (no, seriously, that happened) then it was pretty clear this was going to be Bayern’s day. Lewandowski wrapped things up from the spot.

85.7% – Chelsea

7 games, 6 wins

The Blues came into the weekend winning all their games so far under new manager Maurizio Sarri. The fact that Sarri had only been in the job for just over two months, coupled with the intricacies of his system, made Chelsea’s early success in it so impressive. They hadn’t beaten anyone of note (except Arsenal in a total shootout) but they had been relentless.

However at the weekend they faced up to a West Ham side that was looking to improve after their first win of the season. In theory this should have been a routine win, especially as Eden Hazard was rested in the Europa League. The problem turned out to be that too many of the Chelsea players had also played in the Europa League, and this drastically effected Chelsea’s dominance.

Sure, the Blues still had lots of the ball (Jorginho attempted a league record 180 passes) but with such a tired attack and without their off-the-ball dynamo Pedro who got injured in Greece, they were too easy for West Ham to stifle. On a few occasions when their forwards did move dynamically with speed, they cut a swathe through West Ham (and then wasted their chances) that just happened all too rarely.

Sarri’s decision to play so many first-teamers in the Europa League instead of trusting in the club’s incredible academy was a level of pragmatism aligned with Valverde’s decision to try and ride out to half-time without Umtiti, and it had a similar result in that the record was gone. Hell, in the end they were lucky to remain unbeaten, as West Ham created the better chances on the break and should have won the game. Michail Antonio and Andriy Yarmolenko were guilty of two shocking misses that allowed Chelsea to retain a degree of respectability even as their 100% start to the season was lost at The London Stadium.

100% – Juventus

6 games, 6 wins

Juventus’ domination of Serie A is even more total than Bayern’s in the Bundesliga. The Old Lady have won the last seven Serie A titles, spend money on a scale vastly superior to their rivals, and they just signed Cristiano Ronaldo. This was only going one way, right?

Well, for much of the game it did look like Juve were actually going to lose their 100% record; they were listless and comfortable for too much of the game. Well, except Cristiano Ronaldo who was in typical form, blasting a massive 10 shots at goal during the game.

When Juve did get the breakthrough, however, it was like Liverpool’s in that it came through some lucky deflections. A long shot from Joao Cancelo deflected into the path of Alex Sandro, his pass just about skipped through to Miralem Pjanic and then his shot deflected to Cristiano who slammed it home.

It was fitting reward for constantly taking shots on goal. Even Juve’s second had a big deflection in it, where Pjanic’s break on the left was aided as the defensive clearance bounced off the Bosnian and back into his path. He then crossed it and Federico Bernadeschi threw a hesitation move in before powering it home. Juve stayed at 100% through sheer quality, force of will and a little luck.

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