Nine points separate these two from a sterile clean sheet, and the numbers explain why. Bochum sit 9th on 7 points, Arminia Bielefeld are 13th on 5, and the gap of 4 places and 2 points looks thin once the goals columns are read properly. Bochum have conceded 6 and scored 5 in 6 league games this season, a tight 1.00 against per game, but Arminia Bielefeld have shipped 12 and scored 10 in the same number, a leaking 2.00 conceded per game that points firmly toward goals at both ends on Sunday.

Bochum's record from their last 10 reads W4 D2 L4 with 11 scored and 10 conceded, scoring in 6 of 10 and keeping only 2 clean sheets, and Formatic's form band marks them patchy rather than settled. The competitive thread in that sample is uneven: a 2-1 win away to Dynamo Dresden and a 1-0 win at Eintracht Braunschweig sit alongside a 1-2 defeat at Hannover 96 and a 0-1 home loss to Hertha BSC, who top the table on 18 points. The 4-1 friendly win over VfL Osnabrück is the most recent result but carries little competitive weight, and the underlying shots data, 15.9 shots and 4.6 on target per game, suggests a side creating enough without consistently finishing clinically, backed by a 50.9 percent share of possession that hints at control without punch.

Arminia Bielefeld arrive with the slightly better form label, steady rather than patchy, built on a last 10 of W2 D5 L3 with 19 scored and 17 conceded, and crucially they scored in all 10 of those matches. That is an attacking floor Bochum cannot claim, even if the defensive record behind it is porous, just 2 clean sheets in the same sample. The competitive form has been draw-heavy and goal-heavy at once: 2-2 with 1. FC Heidenheim, 2-2 with FC St. Pauli, and a 1-2 loss at SV Darmstadt 98, plus a heavy 1-4 defeat away to 1. FC Nürnberg. A 3-0 home win over Energie Cottbus shows the ceiling when it clicks, but conceding in nearly every outing, and only 4.1 shots on target per game, means Arminia Bielefeld are built to leak as much as they score.

The head to head leans slightly towards Arminia Bielefeld across the 5 itemised meetings, with 2 wins to Bochum's 1 and 2 draws, including a 1-1 stalemate in May 2026 and a 2-2 shootout back in August 2023, while Bochum's win came by a single goal, 1-0, in December 2025. Across the last 10 meetings in total, Arminia Bielefeld have the edge with 4 wins to Bochum's 3 and 3 draws, and goals have flowed steadily at 2.6 per meeting with both teams scoring in 5 of those 10. Put the season profiles alongside that pattern and this has the look of an open, high-event match: Bochum tidier but blunter, Arminia Bielefeld more fragile but guaranteed to threaten, and a scoreline with goals at both ends is the likeliest shape of the afternoon.