RB Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuttl has dismissed talk of his side winning the Bundesliga this season as "rubbish."
Hasenhuttl's team lead the way from Bayern Munich by three points after getting through their first 12 games of the campaign unbeaten.
"Now we're being made out as title candidates and many people would be disappointed if we were only to qualify for the Europa League, but that is rubbish to the power of 10," Hasenhuttl told Austria's Kleine Zeitung.
"We just want to play a season free from any worries, and we should manage that."
Leipzig are on the best run of any side promoted to Germany's top flight, and Hasenhuttl said a lot of work has gone into getting them into good enough shape to get through their first Bundesliga season honourably.
"Anybody who says we are just on a run would be doing the word 'run' an injustice," he said.
"It's not as if I put my players in a cabinet after every game and bring them out again for the next game and they carry on playing the way they did.
"It unfortunately doesn't work like that. It's brutally hard work and if it looks easy then that is precisely what perfectionism is all about."
Leipzig can be caught at the top of the table by Bayern on Friday night, when the champions travel to Mainz.
On Saturday, Hasenhuttl's men have the prime-time slot for their fixture with resurgent Schalke, who are on a seven-game unbeaten streak in the Bundesliga.