After scoring a hat-trick in the first round of the DFB-Pokal and two goals to down Schalke last weekend, the Dutch striker set his side on the way to a 3-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday to already put three points between them and pre-season title favourites Bayern Munich.

"This is obviously a dream start," he said afterwards. "You can always dream, but you have also got to try to live the dream.

"I hope that we can achieve something this year."

Nevertheless, the former PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United and Real Madrid forward is experienced enough to know there is still plenty of time for things to go wrong.

"We have got to keep calm," he said. "It is great that we have won again, but we have only played two (league) games.

"We have just got to remain relaxed, carry on working hard and concentrate on the next game and then we can be successful."

After the two-week break for internationals, Hamburg host Nurnberg at the HSV-Arena.

Due to their failure to qualify for Europe last season, they will then have a full week to prepare for the eagerly-anticipated city derby with St Pauli on September 18.