Looking for a fourth league win on the bounce, Melbourne City entertain Macarthur at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Friday.
Patrick Kisnorbo's men could move into second place with a win, while the visitors will look to bounce back to winning ways after falling to a 2-0 loss to Central Coast Mariners on Monday.
Match preview
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Melbourne City ended their run of three straight defeats with a 3-2 win over reigning champions Sydney FC on February 23.
Since then, they have picked up two wins from two league matches, most recently an emphatic 6-0 thumping of local rivals Melbourne Victory last Saturday.
League top-scorer Jamie Maclaren gave the hosts a 1-0 lead going into the break, before the visitors shipped five second-half goals to record an embarrassing defeat.
This resurgence has seen City, who have a game in hand, rise to fifth place in the league standings, and they could move up three places into second with a win on Friday.
Macarthur, on the other hand, are coming off Monday's 2-0 loss to league leaders Central Coast Mariners in Gosford.
In a game where the Bulls dominated proceedings, an early goal from Matt Simon and a second-half strike from Matthew Hatch helped Alen Stajcic's side steal all three points and extend their lead over the visitors to seven points.
Next up for Ante Milicic's men is a trip to a Melbourne City side who have picked up six points from three games on home turf with an average of two goals conceded per game.
This is the first meeting between the sides, and considering they are separated by only two points, it promises to be a close contest.
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Team News
Melbourne City have a relatively clean bill of health, with Aiden O'Neill the only guaranteed absentee as he recovers from a back injury.
There are unlikely to be drastic changes to the starting XI, following their impressive performance against Melbourne Victory last time out.
With eight goals and four assists to his name, Jamie Maclaren has been a star performer for the hosts, and Kisnorbo will once again rely on the 27-year-old in attack.
On the other hand, the visitors will be boosted by the return of full-back James Meredith, who recovered from a groin problem last week.
New signing Milisav Popovic will not feature in Friday's encounter, as he remains on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Atkinson, Reis, Good, Jamieson; Griffiths; Nabbout, Metcalfe, Tsubaki, Noone; Maclaren
Macarthur possible starting lineup:
Federici; Meredith, Milligan, Jovanovic, Franjic; Etxebarria, Genreau; Najjar, Puyo, Susaeta; Derbyshire
We say: Melbourne City 2-1 Macarthur
Moving into the playoff places with three wins from three games, the hosts appear to have found their feet, and considering they take on a Macarthur side who have stuttered in recent weeks, we fancy them to narrowly grab all three points on Friday and heap further misery on the visitors.
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 47.31%. A win for Macarthur had a probability of 30.11% and a draw had a probability of 22.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.18%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.89%) and 2-0 (6.37%). The likeliest Macarthur win was 1-2 (7.14%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.92%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 3.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Melbourne City would win this match.
