Borussia Dortmund has overcome its final phase trauma for the time being and, thanks to Anthony Modeste's goal premiere, has further improved its record against Hertha BSC.
The runners-up from last season won 1-0 (1-0) in the Berlin Olympic Stadium on Saturday and thus celebrated their seventh win in the past eight encounters with the capitals.
In front of around 62,342 spectators, the decision was made in the 32nd minute when Modeste scored with a header.
With nine points from the first four games of the season, Borussia kept the status of pursuers.
The Hertha team, on the other hand, are still waiting for their first win and, despite another convincing fighting performance, are already at the bottom with just one point at the beginning of the season.
Hertha coach Sandro Schwarz and his team kept their word on the pitch.
Very compact and very aggressive they wanted to defend.
That's what they did, and that initially bothered the Dortmunders.
Hardly any freedom to push the fast-paced and technically adept Borussia game.
It was not uncommon for Mats Hummels and his fellow defenders to pass the ball to each other.
In the fourth minute there was even a threat of falling behind: Thanks to Gregor Kobel's brilliant act with his fingertips after a deflected shot by Jonjoe Kenny, the score remained 0-0.
Özcan cross, Modeste header
BVB coach Edin Terzic had only changed his team to two positions compared to the bitter 2: 3 after a 2: 0 lead against Werder Bremen until shortly before the end.
Salih Özcan came in midfield and Karim Adeyemi on offense.
As the game went on, the BVB offensive found gaps in the Hertha defense.
A deflected shot from Marco Reus hit the bar (15'), then Raphael Guerreiro's shot was deflected to a corner, which in turn landed on Özcan.
And his attempt hit the post.
After that, Modeste got in the mood to score with two attempts.
And the next one sat: Özcan cross, Modeste headed goal.
In his eleventh Bundesliga game against Hertha, the new BVB signing scored their eighth goal against the Berliners.
Black had to change his defense, the suspended Filip Uremovic was allowed to play from the start for the first time under the new coach Marton Dardai, the 20-year-old made a few bad passes in the build-up.
The recently injured captain Marvin Plattenhardt defended on the left.
He couldn't prevent the attack on the BVB leadership from his side either.
Like a week ago, Hertha didn't give up in the 0-1 draw in Mönchengladbach.
Stevan Jovetic (68th) and then substitute Marco Richter (79th) with a shot into the crossbar missed the equalizer when he came back after his testicular cancer, while Borussia for their part were too careless with the chances or simply failed because of the strong Christensen.