Sports Mole previews Saturday's Bundesliga fixture between Arminia Bielefeld and Bayern Munich, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Arminia Bielefeld host current champions Bayern Munich at the Schuco Arena in Saturday's Bundesliga fixture.

After a shock 4-1 defeat to Hoffenheim, Bayern bounced back to beat Hertha Berlin in their last match whilst newly-promoted Arminia suffered their first loss of the season against Werder Bremen.

Match preview

Serge Gnabry celebrates scoring for Bayern Munich against Schalke with Robert Lewandowski on September 18, 2020 © Reuters

Bayern return from the international break with five of their players having featured for Germany, with winger Serge Gnabry scoring an exquisite goal against Switzerland.

Currently sitting fourth in the Bundesliga table, the Bavarians will now focus all their attention on the first-place league spot and will attack in their usual full-throttle style.

As ever, Robert Lewandowski will be the man to watch as he looks to continue the fine form which saw him score a whopping 34 Bundesliga goals last season.

The Pole also scored all four of the goals in the recent triumph against Hertha and is showing no signs of letting up.

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski celebrates scoring his fourth goal on October 4, 2020 © Reuters

However, whilst Bayern's earlier thrashing at the hands of Hoffenheim was likely just a blip, it demonstrated their defensive frailty in playing such a high line and there is a clear opportunity for Arminia to capitalise.

It will be a question of whether Arminia's attacking players can indeed create more going forwards, having not scored more than one goal in any of their matches this season.

Still, with the sheer firepower at Hansi Flick's disposal and now Kingsley Coman returning to action, the signs point towards a comfortable Bayern victory.

The two sides last clashed all the way back in 2009 with Bayern winning 1-0, and Arminia will be extremely pleased if they were to do any better this time around.

Arminia Bielefeld Bundesliga form: DWL
Arminia Bielefeld form (all competitions): LDWL

Bayern Munich Bundesliga form: WLW
Bayern Munich form (all competitions): WWLWW

Team News

Bayern Munich attacker Kingsley Coman pictured in action in June 2020 © Reuters

A huge positive for Bayern is Kingsley Coman's return, which bolsters an attack which has already scored 13 goals in their three league matches to date.

Leroy Sane's latest knee injury rules him out of action, having not participated for Germany in the international break either.

New signing Tanguy Kouassi's thigh problem and Bouna Sarr's muscle injury also rule them out.

Arminia's Nathan de Medina, Arne Maier and striker Andreas Voglsammer all miss out through injury.

Arminia Bielefeld possible starting lineup:
Ortega; Brunner, Pieper, Van de Hoorn, Lucoqui; Hartel, Doan, Prietl; Klos, Soukou, Cordova

Bayern Munich possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Pavard, Boateng, Alaba, Hernandez; Kimmich, Goretzka; Gnabry, Muller, Davies; Lewandowski

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We say: Arminia Bielefeld 1-3 Bayern Munich

Bayern seemingly score goals for fun since Hansi Flick's appointment as head coach. In Thomas Muller, Gnabry and Lewandowski, Flick has a fearsome attacking trio which has been integral to the club's recent success. With no home fans to give Arminia a much-needed boost, the Bavarians are set to assert their dominance over the newcomers.

Top betting tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting that both teams will score (BTTS - yes) in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bayern Munich win with a probability of 75.48%. A draw had a probability of 14.7% and a win for Arminia Bielefeld had a probability of 9.85%.

The most likely scoreline for a Bayern Munich win was 0-2 with a probability of 10.12%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-3 (9.08%) and 1-2 (8.97%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (6.67%), while for an Arminia Bielefeld win it was 2-1 (2.96%). The actual scoreline of 1-4 was predicted with a 5.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Bayern Munich would win this match.