Werder Bremen and Arminia Bielefeld will both be looking to build on their first wins of the season when the two clubs meet at the Weser Stadium for Saturday's Bundesliga clash.
Bremen took the spoils in a 3-1 victory over Schalke in gameweek two, while Arminia managed to overcome Koln by one goal to nil last weekend.
Match preview
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Coming up against an out-of-sorts Schalke side was just what Werder Bremen needed to boost their confidence after a crushing defeat to Hertha Berlin in the first week of the season, and Florian Kohfeldt's side ran out 3-1 winners against the Bundesliga's basement side last Saturday.
Niclas Fullkrug bagged all three of Bremen's goals against the struggling Schalke side, who ended up relieving David Wagner of his managerial duties following that defeat.
Schalke are a side in disarray at the moment, so it is vitally important that Bremen do not get carried away with that victory away from home, although Die Werderaner have every right to be feeling more confident about their chances of avoiding a relegation dogfight this time around.
Should Kolfeldt's men manage to overcome Arminia this weekend, they will already be halfway there to equalling their win record on familiar territory from the 2019-20 campaign - Bremen won just twice at home all throughout last season.
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Meanwhile, Arminia have made a bright start back to life in the German top flight, holding Eintracht Frankfurt to a 1-1 draw before overcoming Koln last Saturday.
Uwe Neuhaus's side were made to work for their victory and were indebted to substitute Joan Simun Edmundsson, who bagged the winner 11 minutes after coming off the bench for Arminia, squeezing home from a tight angle after being played through by goalkeeper Stefan Ortega Moreno.
While Arminia will be encouraged by their positive start to the Bundesliga season, last season's 2.Bundesliga champions will be taking on Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund before the end of the month, so their unbeaten run is certainly not expected to last.
Bremen and Arminia have not locked horns since the 2015 DFB-Pokal, where the latter ran out 3-1 winners in the round of 16, and Bremen have not triumphed over Die Arminen since recording an 8-1 thrashing over their opponents in the 2007-08 Bundesliga season.
Werder Bremen Bundesliga form: LW
Werder Bremen form (all competitions): WLW
Arminia Bielefeld Bundesliga form: DW
Arminia Bielefeld form (all competitions): LDW
Team News
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Milot Rashica, who has been persistently linked with a move away from Bremen during the transfer window, has a slim chance of being involved after recovering from a knee injury.
Kevin Mohwald and Omer Toprak are still on the treatment table and not expected to come back just yet, and as far as any potential team changes are concerned, Yuya Osako and Davie Selke will both be looking to displace Josh Sargent up top.
Given Arminia's strong start to life back in the Bundesliga, Neuhaus will be expected to keep changes to a minimum.
Edmundsson will be holding out for a start following his winner last weekend, but Neuhaus could very well keep faith in the same starting XI from the win over Koln.
Sebastian Muller, Reinhold Yabo, Andreas Voglsammer and Nathan de Medina all remain unavailable through injury.
Werder Bremen possible starting lineup:
Pavlenka; Selassie, Friedl, Veljkovic, Augustinsson; Eggestein, Klaassen, Mbom, Bittencourt; Selke, Fullkrug
Arminia Bielefeld possible starting lineup:
Ortega; Brunner, Pieper, Hoorn, Lucoqui; Doan, Hartel, Prietl; Soukou, Klos, Cordova
We say: Werder Bremen 1-1 Arminia Bielefeld
Both sides will go into this game feeling capable of walking away with maximum points, so that should make for an exciting spectacle in gameweek three. Bremen's record at home over the past year has been quite frankly atrocious, but we are backing Kohfeldt's side to battle for a draw against their strong-willed opponents.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win 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.Home/Away:data
Ben Knapton
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 Werder Bremen win with a probability of 36.46%. A win for Arminia Bielefeld had a probability of 36.01% and a draw had a probability of 27.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Werder Bremen win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.8%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.91%) and 2-0 (6.56%). The likeliest Arminia Bielefeld win was 0-1 (10.72%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.02%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 10.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Werder Bremen in this match.
