Two teams at opposite ends of the A-League table face off on Saturday as newly crowned champions Melbourne City welcome rock-bottom Newcastle Jets to AAMI Park.
The hosts will be aiming to quickly return to winning ways following their shock 3-0 loss to Brisbane Roar, while the visitors will be desperate to end their 14-game winless streak.
Match preview
After sealing their maiden league title with a 1-0 win over Central Coast Mariners, a rested Melbourne City side fell to a 3-0 defeat away to Brisbane Roar.
While Alex Parsons opened his scoring account for the season, Jay O'Shea converted two penalties to hand the Roars all three points and end their four-game winless streak against Melbourne City.
The loss reduced Patrick Kisnorbo's men's lead at the top of the table to seven points, following second-placed Sydney's 1-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers.
Prior to that, the hosts last tasted defeat when they lost 2-1 to Western United on April 1 before going on a 10-game unbeaten run that yielded 24 points.
While Melbourne City have nothing to play for but pride, they will aim to do the league double over Saturday's visitors after claiming a 3-1 victory back in April's reverse fixture.
Meanwhile, Newcastle Jets' horror campaign continued as they were beaten 2-1 by Brisbane Roar last time out.
The Jets drew level after Jay O'Shea scored an own goal in the 61st minute to cancel out Riku Danzaki's opener, but the Irishman made up for his earlier mistake by restoring the Roar's lead with a 73rd-minute strike.
Craig Deans's side have now failed to taste victory in their last 14 outings, picking up just three draws since their 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory on February 21.
With this dire run of results, the Jets are rooted at the bottom of the A-League table, one point behind fellow strugglers Melbourne City.
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
- D
- L
- L
Team News
Twenty-one-year-old defender Nathaniel Atkinson remains on the sidelines after picking up a season-ending hamstring injury in the game against Wellington Phoenix back in April.
The likes of Craig Noone, Tom Glover and Adrian Luna are expected to return to the fold after they were rested by Kisnorbo last time out.
With his brace against Perth Glory on May 5, Jamie Maclaren became the fastest player to reach 100 A-League goals, and we expect the 27-year-old to once again lead the City attack on Saturday.
Newcastle Jets, on the other hand, will be without the services of midfielder Luka Prso, who is nursing a shoulder injury.
Other than that, the Jets have a full strength squad and we expect Deans to name his strongest XI for this crunch tie against the champions.
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Galloway, Reis, Good, Jamieson; Luna, O'Neill, Berenguer; Tilio, Colakovski, Noone!-- TN -->
Newcastle Jets possible starting lineup:
Italiano; Millar, Koutroumbis, Topor-Stanley, O'Toole; Ugarkovic, Thurgate; Yuel, Hoffman, O'Donovan; Stamatelopoulos
We say: Melbourne City 2-0 Newcastle Jets
After a superb campaign Melbourne City have claimed their first-ever A-League title, while in stark contrast, the visitors are rooted at the bottom of the table after several poor outings. The hosts will aim to avoid consecutive defeats and given the quality of their squad, we predict they will claim all three points unscathed.
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 Melbourne City win with a probability of 67.99%. A draw had a probability of 18.1% and a win for Newcastle Jets had a probability of 13.88%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.26%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.72%) and 1-0 (8.87%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.4%), while for a Newcastle Jets win it was 1-2 (3.98%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 4% likelihood.
