Looking to give an immediate response to a first defeat of the season last time out, Ajax visit the Abe Lenstra Stadion on Saturday to lock horns with Heerenveen.
On the other hand, the home side go in search of consecutive victories for the first time since August having returned to winning ways in their last involvement.
Match preview
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Ajax saw their seven-game winning streak across all competitions come to end following a 1-0 defeat versus Utrecht at the Johan Cruyff ArenA on October 3.
Erik ten Hag's men wasted several gilt-edged chances to open the scoring and were made to pay in the 77th minute when Django Warmerdam broke the deadlock.
However, De Godenzonen remain top of the pile but have now seen their lead over second-placed PSV Eindhoven cut down to a single point.
A perfect opportunity to get back on track awaits the 35-time Dutch champions against an opposing side who they have beaten in 16 of the last 20 meetings.
With a tantalising Champions League tie versus Borussia Dortmund to come three days later, Saturday's visitors will be keen on picking up a morale-boosting victory this weekend.
Heerenveen recorded a first victory away from home since the opening weekend following a narrow 1-0 triumph over PEC Zwolle a fortnight ago.
A Bram Van Polen own goal three minutes past the hour mark was enough to hand Johnny Jansen's men all three points at the Mac3Park Stadion.
As a result, De Superfriezen have moved up into seventh place in the Eredivisie table, six points adrift of this weekend's opponents ahead of the clash.
Saturday's hosts, whose last victory in this fixture came back in 2008, are now faced with what is arguably their sternest test of the campaign to date.
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Team News
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Polish defender Pawel Bochniewicz is ruled out of Saturday's contest with a knee injury, while Erwin Mulder misses out through a finger injury.
Henk Veerman has scored five of his side's nine goals this term and will need to be on song if the hosts are to stand any chance of coming away with a positive result.
Twenty-seven-year-old Sean Klaiber continues to battle with a knee injury which has seen him miss each of the visitors' last 15 matches.
Summer arrival Remko Pasveer is expected to continue in between the sticks as Maarten Stekelenburg remains sidelined with a groin injury.
Dusan Tadic heads into Saturday's contest having scored in each of the last five meetings between the sides and is one to keep an eye on.
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mous; Dresevic, Woudenberg, Van Beek, Van Ewijk; J.Veerman, Halilovic, Madsen; De Jong, H.Veerman, Musaba
Ajax possible starting lineup:
Pasveer; Mazraoui, Timber, Martinez, Tagliafico; Alvarez, Gravenberch, Berghuis; Neres, Tadic, Haller
We say: Heerenveen 0-3 Ajax
Ajax will definitely have one eye on their game against Borussia Dortmund and may opt to rest a couple of key stars this weekend. Nonetheless, we fancy them to come away with all three points in a comfortable fashion at the end of the 90 minutes.
Top tip
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 Ajax win with a probability of 70.52%. A draw had a probability of 17.4% and a win for Heerenveen had a probability of 12.1%.
The most likely scoreline for an Ajax win was 0-2 with a probability of 11.07%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.59%) and 0-1 (9.42%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.15%), while for a Heerenveen win it was 2-1 (3.53%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with an 11.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-2 win for Ajax in this match.
