The Yellow Wall barely had time to settle before the noise came pouring down. Five minutes into a warm September afternoon at Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund tore forward on the break, Serhou Guirassy slid the ball into space, and Fabio Silva swept a right-footed finish through the centre of the goal. It was quick, ruthless and utterly in keeping with a side that has started this Bundesliga campaign with the appetite of a team certain of where it is heading.

What followed was a study in patience rewarded. For long stretches Dortmund pressed and probed without adding to their lead, but the outcome never felt in doubt against a Paderborn side yet to find the net all season. In the closing ten minutes the dam finally broke. Felix Nmecha struck twice, first with a rising finish, then with a low drive into the bottom corner, and a 3-0 win was complete.

This was the kind of afternoon that flatters a good team and exposes a struggling one. Dortmund now have nine points from three matches, three wins from three, and the swagger of a club settling comfortably into the season's early rhythm. Paderborn, meanwhile, trudged off still searching for their first goal and their first win of the campaign.

Silva sets the tone

The opening goal carried the fingerprints of a team playing on instinct. Guirassy, so often the man on the end of the chances, this time became the provider, threading a pass through the vacated space as Dortmund countered at pace. Silva did the rest, meeting it with a clean right-footed strike that gave the visiting goalkeeper no chance whatsoever.

It was the ideal script for the hosts. A goal that early against a side low on confidence invited Dortmund to control the tempo, to move the ball with authority and force Paderborn into chasing shadows. The lead settled the crowd into a hum of expectation rather than anxiety, the Westfalenstadion sensing there would be more to come.

For Silva, the strike was a statement of intent, a forward eager to establish himself in a front line already blessed with Guirassy's presence. The partnership between the two, glimpsed in that opening flourish, hinted at the depth of attacking options at Dortmund's disposal this season.

Nmecha closes it out

For all their dominance, Dortmund had to wait until the 80th minute to make the scoreline safe. It was Maximilian Beier who created the second, feeding Nmecha inside the box, and the midfielder lashed a right-footed shot high into the centre of the net. The relief and release in the stands was immediate, the game finally beyond Paderborn's reach.

Nine minutes later, Nmecha had his second. Marcel Sabitzer swung in a cross and Nmecha arrived to guide a right-footed finish into the bottom left corner, a goal that spoke of a player timing his runs to perfection. Two goals in the final stretch turned a comfortable win into an emphatic one.

There is something to admire in a team that keeps pressing when the result is already secure. Dortmund did not coast once they had their opening goal; they hunted for more, and their reward was a clean sheet and a scoreline that will read handsomely in the record books. Nmecha, so often a supporting figure, walked off as the afternoon's decisive man.

A tale of two seasons

The gulf in the table is stark, and this result only widened it. Dortmund sit second on nine points, unbeaten with eight goals scored and only two conceded, the numbers of a side firing on both fronts. Three wins from three is the foundation any title challenge is built upon, and there is a settled look about a team that dispatches lesser opposition without fuss.

Paderborn, by contrast, remain marooned in 15th on a single point, still without a goal to their name after three matches. A solitary draw and now three defeats to their tally, with four conceded and none scored, tells the story of a side struggling to make an impression at either end of the pitch. The early weeks of a season can flatter or deceive, but these are numbers that demand a response.

For the visitors, the trip to one of the most intimidating grounds in European football was always going to be a difficult examination, and so it proved. They defended in numbers for long spells and kept the deficit to one until the final ten minutes, but the lack of a threat going forward left them chasing a game they could never realistically reach.

The road ahead

Dortmund will look at this afternoon as another box neatly ticked. The perfect start affords them the luxury of momentum, and the sight of goals arriving from Silva and Nmecha, alongside the creative involvement of Guirassy, Beier and Sabitzer, suggests a team whose threat is not concentrated in one man alone. That spread of contributions may prove the most encouraging feature of all.

For Paderborn, the challenge is more fundamental. Scoring goals is the immediate priority, and confidence must be rebuilt from the ground up before the early-season slide hardens into something harder to escape. The Bundesliga rarely waits for the wounded, and a first win and a first goal cannot come soon enough.

On this evidence the two clubs are travelling in opposite directions, one gathering pace at the top, the other in need of a spark at the bottom. Dortmund left the field to a satisfied roar from the Yellow Wall, their season's rhythm intact. Paderborn departed with plenty to ponder and precious little time in which to find the answers.