One of last season's Bundesliga overachievers Freiburg travel to the Mercedes-Benz Arena to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Stuttgart have had a bizarre, polarising start to the season, while Freiburg have picked up where they left off with last season's excellent league finish.
Match preview
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After scoring five on the opening day, Stuttgart quickly undid their good work by conceding five the week following.
Silas and Serhou Guirassy were in stellar form, both scoring twice as Stuttgart thrashed Bochum 5-0 to get their campaign underway.
The margin of victory was a surprise given how close the two sides were last season, as it was Bochum's late-season form that condemned Stuttgart to the relegation playoff, where they maintained their top-flight status by beating Hamburg 6-1 on aggregate.
However, Sebastian Hoeness and his side were sent crashing back down to earth with a 5-1 humbling at RB Leipzig despite leading at half time.
Home comforts have been evident under Hoeness though, as they are unbeaten in the six home games since he took over in April.
Hoeness will need to arrest a woeful recent record against Freiburg though, as Stuttgart have lost their last six Bundesliga meetings against their upcoming opponents.
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Freiburg also bring great early-season form into this clash, having won their opening two matches.
It looks set to be another fine start for Christian Streich's men, after they lost just one of their first nine games last season on the road to a fifth-place finish.
The fan-run club continues to punch well above its weight, and they were unlucky to miss out on Champions League football, finishing just outside the top four.
A Hungarian duo helped them to a 2-1 win over Hoffenheim on the opening day, as an Attila Szalai own goal followed up by Roland Sallai's strike set them on their way.
It was more of a struggle against Werder Bremen at the weekend in their first home match of the season, as Freiburg left it late with Maximilian Philipp's 96th-minute winner earning them a 1-0 win.
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Team News
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Stuttgart will look to Guirassy to keep up his excellent form in 2023 to steer them to victory here, as he scored in four of their final six games last season, as well as in the playoff versus Hamburg.
Guirassy continued that form with two goals for Guinea in the June international break and he has four in three games so far this season, after also scoring a hat-trick against Sheffield United in pre-season.
The Guinean's goal had no bearing on the scoreline last week, but Hoeness could stick with the same team regardless.
Despite losing Wataru Endo and Konstantinos Mavropanos to the Premier League, the manager has made only one change so far, replacing Enzo Millot with Lilian Egloff last weekend.
Deniz Undav is not yet ready for a debut after arriving on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion, while Josha Vagnoman and Nikolas Nartey are also out injured.
Philipp had a Freiburg debut to remember by scoring an injury-time winner off the bench last weekend.
The new signing will be pushing for a starting spot, so Ritsu Doan, Lucas Holer and Sallai could see their places under threat.
Long-serving Christian Gunter, newly-signed Junior Adamu and Daniel-Kofi Kyereh are all currently out injured for the visitors.
Stuttgart possible starting lineup:
Nubel; Stenzel, Anton, Zagadou, Ito; Stiller, Karazor, Jeong; Silas, Guirassy, Fuhrich
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Atubolu; Sildillia, Ginter, Lienhart, Kubler; Hofler, Eggestein, Sallai; Doan, Holer, Grifo
We say: Stuttgart 1-3 Freiburg
Stuttgart showed fine form in thrashing Bochum on the opening day, but the problems that linger were exposed by Leipzig last week.
Freiburg completed a league double over Stuttgart and finished 26 points ahead of them last season to emphasise the gulf in class, and not much has changed since, so a similar outcome is expected.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
