Melbourne City will look to make it three wins from three games when they take on Brisbane Roar at the AAMI Park Stadium on Sunday.
The visitors, meanwhile, will aim to maintain their impressive run of results after moving into the playoff places with a 2-1 win over Western United last time out.
Match preview
Melbourne City extended their lead at the top of the A-League table to six points on Wednesday when they claimed a 3-1 win over Perth Glory.
Australian-born striker Jamie Maclaren continued his stellar campaign by bagging two goals to help Patrick Kisnorbo's men fight back from one goal down to claim their 12th win of the season.
The City have now picked up four wins and two draws since their 2-1 defeat to Western United, pushing six points clear of second-place Adelaide United at the top of the table.
Their success this season has been down to their free-scoring attackers, who have scored a league-high 45 goals in 19 outings.
Their dominance on home turf has been another key factor, as they boast the league's best point-per-game ratio at home with 21 points from eight games.
On the other hand, the rejuvenated Brisbane Roar secured another victory when they beat Western United 2-1 on Wednesday.
Lachlan Wales gave the Bulls the lead in the 60th minute, but Josh Brindell-South restored parity 12 minutes later, before Riku Danzaki completed the comeback with a dramatic 94th-minute winner.
Since ending their eight-game winless streak, Warren Moon's men have picked up one draw and three wins, including an emphatic 4-0 triumph over Central Coast Mariners on April 28.
After languishing in the bottom half of the table for most of the season, the Roar are now in contention for a playoff-place finish, having climbed up to sixth place last time out.
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Team News
Melbourne City will be without the services of Nathaniel Atkinson, who is ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.
With 22 goals in 19 games Jamie Maclaren is now 11 goals clear at the top of the league's scoring chart, and all eyes will once again be on the 27-year-old in this tie.
Meanwhile, Brisbane Roar have a relatively clean bill of health with Scottish centre-back Tom Aldred their only guaranteed absentee.
The 30-year-old picked up a hamstring injury in the 2-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers three games ago and is expected to remain on the sidelines for a few weeks.
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Galloway, Griffiths, Good, Jamieson; Luna, O'Neill, Metcalfe; Nabbout, Maclaren, Noone
Brisbane Roar possible starting lineup:
Young; Neville, Trewin, Gillesphey; Brindell-South, O'Shea, Daley, Brown; Danzaki, Wenzel-Halls, Champness
We say: Melbourne City 3-1 Brisbane Roar
Both sides come into this tie on an impressive run of results and so we expect a closely fought contest. However, Melbourne City are at the top of the table for a reason, and considering they possess a stronger squad at both ends of the pitch, we predict they will coast to another win.
Top tip
Joshua Ojele
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 Melbourne City win with a probability of 60.71%. A draw had a probability of 20% and a win for Brisbane Roar had a probability of 19.32%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.76%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (8.41%) and 1-0 (7.68%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.92%), while for a Brisbane Roar win it was 1-2 (5.18%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 4.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Melbourne City would win this match.
