The trends point to a stalemate in Friday's live A League clash in Melbourne.
Melbourne City v Sydney FC – Friday 08:50, BT Sport 1
Western Sydney’s victory in the Sydney Derby brought Sydney FC’s 19-game unbeaten run this season to an end, and they now face a tricky away tie at Melbourne City as they enter the last eight games of the regular season. Melbourne City reinforced their position in the top four with an emphatic 5-1 win over Wellington Phoenix, and although a nine-point gap separates them from their crosstown rivals the Victory in second, condemning Sydney to consecutive defeats would be a good way to keep up the pressure.
City are the only team yet to lose to Sydney this season, but their record against top-half sides is not good. They’ve not won at home against such opposition since last season – going LLDLD in their last five at home to top-half sides – although they’ve scored in the four most recent games in that run. By contrast, Sydney have gone WDWWD away against top-half sides of late, but they have not beaten City at AAMI Park since late 2014, and last season they never rebounded from a loss with a win, going W0-D3-L3 in their six games following defeats. Furthermore, despite running away with the league, Sydney have failed to score in half their last six matches including their last two on the road.
These two drew earlier in the season, and while Melbourne edged the FFA Cup final, we think that Sydney will maintain their creditable run away at top-half sides. However, while City haven’t been winning these sorts of fixtures they’ve been hard to beat. They’ve lost only once at in their last nine matches and have drawn four of their last nine when hosting top-half sides. These two have drawn three of their last four meetings and we think that could continue again here.
