Sydney FC play host to Melbourne Victory on Wednesday with the opportunity to move into second position in the A-league standings.
While the home side have collected seven points from their last four fixtures, the struggling visitors are without a win in five outings.
Match preview
© Reuters
There have been times this season where Sydney have looked a shadow of the side which finished at the top of the standings last season.
However, despite a run of just two wins from seven matches, the Sky Blues will move into second spot if they can inflict more misery on their opponents.
Sydney's two victories during that period have been by 1-0 scorelines against out-of-form teams, their latest success coming on Saturday away at Western United.
Adam Le Fondre marked his return from a loan spell in India with the decisive goal from the penalty spot, and there is now hope that the veteran can spearhead an upturn in results over the coming weeks.
Despite conceding nine goals in seven games, Steve Corica's team still possess the joint-best defensive record in the division.
That is a statistic which will discourage Victory head coach Steve Kean with his team having failed to build on their 5-4 triumph against Western Sydney Wanderers on April 23.
Just one point has been recorded in five outings, their latest defeat coming at the hands of Macarthur by a 3-1 scoreline.
Now sitting 13 points adrift of 10th position, Victory's sole aim is to remain above bottom-placed Newcastle Jets over their concluding four fixtures.
Elvis Kamsoba scored Victory's consolation effort in their last match, registering his second goal from his most recent three appearances.
- D
- D
- W
- L
- D
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
- L
Team News
After his 27-minute outing as a substitute against Western United, Le Fondre could be brought into the Sydney XI.
Anthony Caceres and Alexander Baumjohann are also options for Corica, but the remainder of the side could stay the same.
Lleyton Brooks may be given an opportunity in the Victory starting lineup with Robbie Kruse expected to miss the game through injury.
With Nicholas Ansell serving the second of his two-game suspension, Kean may opt against any alterations to his backline.
However, young defender Aaron Anderson is an option if Kean wishes to hand the 20-year-old further experience ahead of next season.
Sydney FC possible starting lineup:
Redmayne; Grant, McGowan, Wilkinson, King; Barbarouses, Brattan, Caceres, Ninkovic; Le Fondre, Buhagiar
Melbourne Victory possible starting lineup:
Acton; Roux, Broxham, Ryan, Barnett; Brimmer, Butterfield; Kamsoba, Brooks, Folami; Gestede
We say: Sydney FC 2-1 Melbourne Victory
Sydney have been far from perfect in recent games, but so have Victory, who are now struggling under Kean.
With that in mind, we expect to see a comfortable win for the home side after nullifying the early enthusiasm of their opponents.
Top tip
Darren Plant
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 Sydney FC win with a probability of 57.63%. A draw had a probability of 22.4% and a win for Melbourne Victory had a probability of 19.98%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sydney FC win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.53%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.92%) and 2-0 (9.86%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.59%), while for a Melbourne Victory win it was 0-1 (5.66%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 9.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sydney FC would win this match.
