The Veltins-Arena was the stage for the Bundesliga's last match of the weekend as struggling Schalke hosted a Borussia Mönchengladbach side looking to leap up into second place, delivering a commanding performance to win 4-0.
Schalke have surprised everyone so far this season, however not for the right reasons as they sit in an unfamiliar position at the bottom of the Bundesliga. The Gelsenkirchken club needed to find their Europa League form and start transferring it into league form as the international break approaches.
As for Gladbach, things looked bright going into the game, they sat in sixth place after picking up ten points in their five matches and as previously mentioned a win would mean second place was their's. Despite losing in midweek against Barcelona the club could take positives into their game with Schalke after performing admirably.
Schalke flew out the blocks
The home side didn't waste any time in looking to get on the front foot and get the fans behind them and it took just five minutes for them to show Gladbach some threatening signs. Nabil Bentaleb found space in midfield and attempted to play the ball through to Eric Choupo-Moting, which he succeeded in doing so, disappointingly for Schalke the offside flag was raised against the forward.
Die Knappen were the side on top and the first meaningful effort on goal came after ten minutes. Alessandro Schöpf crossed from the left and the bounced all the way through to Leon Goretzka, on the turn the youngster's effort was on target however it didn't cause Yann Sommer any problems.
Shortly after the effort from Goretzka the home side had another, Nico Elvedi was able to stop Schöpf advancing towards goal, well so he thought, Schöpf quickly robbed Elvedi of possession and struck an effort on goal. Sadly for Schöpf his hard work didn't pay off as his effort rolled into the hands of Sommer.
Visitors Gladbach were very quiet in the first half and struggled to produce anything going forward, nevertheless they finally did towards the end of the first half. A ball over the top picked out Fabian Johnson and the American cut the ball back to Andre Hahn, agonisingly for their fans the ball edged away from the forward before being cleared for a corner.
The resulting corner almost produced the first goal, Jannik Vestergaard arrived at the back post and managed to leap above his marker to head the ball over Ralf Fährmann, to the relief of the Schalke keeper Schöpf was on the line to clear the danger.
Schalke surprise as they run riot
The second half started with electric pace as both teams looked to get on the front foot, a minute into the half Hahn was able to force Fährmann into action with a strike from thirteen yards.
Die Fohlen were looking better and looked more likely to grabbing the lead, however that wasn't the case as in the fifty-second minute saw the referee award Schalke a penalty. Choupo-Moting picked up possession on the left side and came inside only to be clipped by Ibrahima Traoré in the area. The Cameroon forward stepped up to take and he excellently fired into the top left corner, the effort was just out of the reach of Sommer.
Four minutes later things got even better for Schalke as they doubled their lead. Sead Kolašinac won the ball for the home side on the left and after brilliantly bursting forward he was able to play in Breel-Donald Embolo who was free in the middle and the young Swiss was able to guide the ball past his countryman Sommer and into the bottom right corner from eight yards.
The goals didn't stop there either as Schalke made it three, Mahmoud Dahoud was robbed of possession inside the Schalke half and a counter attack was on. Embolo charged forward and slipped the ball into Choupo-Moting his effort looked to be heading in, however Sommer was able to pull off a great save, unfortunately for the keeper he was left helpless as the rebound was tucked away by Goretzka.
Gladbach were left stunned after the three quickfire goals and struggled to respond. One of the opportunities that came their way saw Thorgan Hazard link up with Johnson and his strike from a tight angle was saved by Fährmann and unluckily flashed past the Hahn and the post.
As the game entered the last ten minutes Schalke grabbed themselves a fourth, Andreas Christensen failed to pass the ball back to Sommer as he came under pressure from Embolo and the Schalke man managed to edge ahead of the defender before knocking the ball past Sommer and tapping into the empty net after tangling with Christensen.
That proved to be the last of the action as Schalke sealed all three points, not only was it their first win of the season it was also their first points of the season. A much needed win for the men in blue and a big wake up call for Gladbach who looked vulnerable at the back once more.
The victory now sees Schalke move off the bottom of the table and into the relegation play-off spot, meanwhile Gladbach drop down to ninth place. After the international break Schalke will look to grab another victory when they travel to Bavaria to face Augsburg, while Gladbach will have to pick themselves up and face Hamburg at Borussia Park.