The Victory had to battle on the weekend to eek out a draw against the Wanderers as they remained winless in four matches under Arthur Diles.
Each of the three draws have all come with some merit given the opponent and match circumstances, but Western United will provide another stern test.
Joh Aloisi’s men fell midweek against Melbourne City as his pick and stick approach backfired, ending their four match winning streak.
However on the back of their last month, punters should have a lot more faith in their ability to turn it around while the Victory are struggling for wins.
Especially with the nominal visitors at $4.25 to win at publish, this market is weighted far too heavily towards the Victory.
BEST: Western United Win/Draw Double $2.10 | VALUE: Western United to Win $4.25
12 months after being the best bet in the league, Wellington is now firmly in “back against” territory whenever they take on a good side.
Adelaide is one such good side with the Reds sitting in third place and in position to move to the top of the A-League ladder, at least temporarily, with a win here.
Travelling has not been a problem for Carl Veart’s side this season, with five wins from five starts and the hype train is showing no signs of slowing down.
Meanwhile, Wellington has won one of its last four and their hot start is a distant memory as Giancarlo Italiano searches for answers.
Adelaide may not have a better chance to record their first away win over the Nix since November 2018 than this one.
BEST: Adelaide to Win $2.15 | VALUE: Adelaide to Win Both Halves $6.00
Do we really have to go through the usual rigmarole of explaining just how much the Roar are struggling again?
After 11 winless matches, it should be pretty clear where they stand.
To be fair they did put in an effort on Tuesday night, the shortcomings in the club were there for all to see.
Now they head to AAMI Park to face Melbourne City, the last time that happened they were trounced 8-1 in Luciano Traini’s only match in charge of the Roar.
A similar scoreline probably won’t unfold this time around, but City will win this one comfortably.
BEST: Melbourne City to Win $1.52 | VALUE: Melbourne City to Win -2 Goals $3.90
Sydney’s resolve will be put to the test in this match with this match coming on the back of a midweek clash with Perth Glory.
Ufuk Talay will have to manage his squad, especially the veterans who won’t be able to get through a full 270 minutes in the space of seven days as he tries to keep his side’s good run of results intact.
Thanks to the intricacies of the draw and stadium availability, this will be Sydney’s fifth home match of the campaign, having defeated Western Sydney and the Victory while also falling to Macarthur and Western United.
Despite the Mariners success over the last few seasons, they have struggled with Sky Blues, losing four of their last five as the away team in this rivalry.
The reigning champions just have not been able to get going this season and winning in Sydney might be asking a bit much of them.
BEST: Sydney to Win $1.62 | VALUE: SGM: Sydney HT/FT Double & Both Teams to Score $4.05
The first edition of the new Distance Derby (that may need to be given a fresh name) is not expected to be an overly close contest.
All things considered the draw has done Perth dirty here, even with the match being played at HBF Park.
They will have to scramble back from Wednesday night’s game in Sydney and prepare to face the league leaders, who are coming off a 10 day break.
How the Black Knights handle their first trip to Perth will determine the final margin of this game and it might not necessarily be the blowout the market is expecting.
They should still win but maybe not by four or five.
BEST: Auckland to Win and Under 4.5 Goals $1.95 | VALUE: Auckland to Win and Under 2.5 Goals $4.80
Newcastle has recorded three wins this season, most recently in Brisbane and prior to that in Perth, while their first victory came in late October away to Macarthur.
All three wins came away from McDonald Jones Stadium, but one of their opponents was not like the other.
At the time of publish, the Glory and Roar are the two teams situated below the Jets on the A-League ladder, with a combined seven points from 22 matches, three of which came in Perth’s lone victory of the season over Brisbane.
Meanwhile Macarthur is in fifth place and have four wins, a draw and a loss on their travels so far.
Let’s work on the assumption that the Jets Round 2 win was very much an anomaly.
BEST: Macarthur to Win $2.45 | VALUE: Macarthur to Win and Over 3.5 Goals $4.80