Ruthless Robert Lewandowski maintains hot streak as Bayern Munich return to top of Bundesliga

Bavarians beat Cologne 4-1 after devastating spell of three goals in opening 12 minutes

Left to right: Bayern Munich's David Alaba, Robert Lewandowski and Thiago Alcantara celebrate after the win at Cologne. AFP

Bayern Munich's Kingsley Coman, third left, celebrates after scoring. AFP

Serge Gnabry scores Bayern's third. Getty

Robert Lewandowski scores the first goal. Getty

Robert Lewandowski scores Bayern's opener. Getty

Robert Lewandowski, left, celebrates the opening goal. AFP

Bayern's Serge Gnabry scores his second goal. AP

Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saves from Cologne's Jhon Cordoba. AP

Cologne fans at Sunday's game. AFP

Kingsley Coman after he scored Bayern's second. AP

Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller shoots at goal. Reuters

Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is challenged by Cologne's Jhon Cordoba. AP

Bayern Munich scored three goals in a devastating opening 12 minutes as they thumped Cologne 4-1 away on Sunday to go back to the top of the Bundesliga.

Robert Lewandowski maintained his average of over a goal a game this season as he put the Bavarians ahead in the third minute and goals from Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry left Cologne reeling.

After Cologne had two goals disallowed for offside, Gnabry added a fourth in the 65th minute before Mark Uth scored a consolation for the Billy Goats, who deserved more for their second-half effort.

Bayern, chasing an eighth successive title, have 46 points from 22 games, one ahead of RB Leipzig who had gone top with a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen on Saturday. Cologne are 14th with 23 points and have a six-point cushion over the relegation playoff spot.

"We just went to sleep for the first few minutes," said Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn.

Bayern's opening goal came after a throw-in led to a quick exchange of passes which freed Lewandowski to fire his shot into the roof of the net for his 23rd league goal of the season and 36th in all competitions.

The Pole is only the second player to score 23 Bundesliga goals in the opening 22 games of a season. Bayern legend Gerd Muller reached that figure three times (26 in 1967-70, 23 in 1971-72 and 24 in 1972-73).

Two minutes later, Bayern sliced open the Cologne defence with incisive passing and Coman placed his shot under Horn.

It got worse for the hosts when a corner flew over the Cologne area and landed at the feet of Gnabry, who took it past a defender and drilled his shot into the bottom corner.

Bayern, who were sixth in early December, had 18 shots on goal in the first half and could easily have doubled their tally as Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich hit the Cologne woodwork and Thomas Mueller scooped another effort over the crossbar.

Cologne pulled themselves together after the break and Jhon Cordoba twice had the ball in the net but both efforts were ruled out for offside, the first after a long VAR delay.

But it was Bayern who scored again when Gnabry collected the ball in midfield, ran into the heart of the Cologne defence and curled his effort past Horn in the 65th minute.

Uth pulled one back in the 70th minute and Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer needed to make several saves to keep the hosts at bay.