Bayern Munich have been rampant since Niko Kovac departed the club and have closed the gap to one point on table-toppers Borussia Monchengladbach, agencies report.
Lucas Hernandez will continue to miss out, but is expected to make a return before the new year. The French defender was injured in Bayern's 3-2 Champions League victory over Olympiacos. Niklas Sule will also not feature as the centre-back suffered a cruciate ligament injury in his sides 2-2 draw with Augsburg in October.
Jann-Fiete Arp is another Bayern player that will miss Leverkusen's visit, as he recovers from a broken wrist which has kept him from action this term. Kai Havertz is a doubt as he continues to nurse a torn muscle fibre, which he picked up in Leverkusen's 2-2 draw against Wolfsburg this month. Daley Sinkgraven has missed out on every game since sustaining a hamstring injury against RB Leipzig in October, and will continue to do so.
Mitchell Weiser was forced off in Leverkusen's 1-1 draw with Freiburg with a torn ankle ligament and is certain to miss out this time. Joel Pohjanpalo has sat out of his side's last two matches, after he suffered a ruptured intra-articular ligament initiation in his knee, keeping him out of the side again.
Leverkusen have been poor when facing Bayern in the past, with just eight victories against the champions. A further nine draws and 28 losses highlights the ever-growing quality gap between the two sides and highlights Bayern's dominance of German football. The home side have scored 89 goals against their opposition, and shipped only 47.
In their previous encounter, Leverkusen ran out 3-1 victors. However, over their previous five clashes, Bayern have recorded four victories, each by two goals or more, suggesting that the home side are leaps and bounds ahead of Leverkusen. A 6-2 victory away from home in April 2018 was the largest goal margin in this period.
Bayern have been in scintillating form since Hans-Dieter Flick took charge as interim manager. A 4-0 victory over rivals Borussia Dortmund, as well as a 6-0 drubbing of Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League has shown that the home side are on track to becoming champions once again, despite the best efforts of the teams around them.
Leverkusen have struggled to get any good form going this season. With just one win in their last five league games, finishing in a European place seems a difficult task. However, they are preforming well in the Champions League, as they have beaten Lokomotiv Moscow and Atlético Madrid in their previous two games.
Bayern Munich are enjoying a mini revival under Flick and have not yet conceded under their interim coach. Leverkusen, on the other hand, have been incredibly inconsistent, but provided a shock in beating their opponents last time.
