It’s match week 5 of the 2020-21 A-League season and there’s plenty to look forward to.
There’s never a dull moment when Adelaide United take on Melbourne Victory in the Original Rivalry, Perth Glory begins their tour of duty in Victoria, we’ll see if the Central Coast Mariners mean business as they take on Sydney FC and the ‘Nix and Jets finally get a chance to collect their first full 3 points of the season.
Five terrific fixtures, five chances to back some winners.
See who we’re backing in our A-League match week 5 tips and preview below.👇
After starting the season with back-to-back wins, and even being referred to as the “top of the table Central Coast Mariners”, Usain Bolt’s old side were brought back to earth with a 1-0 loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers on Tuesday night.
This Friday night’s match in Gosford against Sydney FC will be a real test for the Mariners to see if they are the real deal.
Sydney FC goes into this match after splitting the points against the Wanderers last week and are clear favourites in our A-League markets.
The Mariners have only conceded the one goal this season and have brought a highly entertaining and physical style of play so far this season.
While the money is clearly on the Sky Blues to get the job done, I reckon there’s some seriously good value for both sides to split the points in this one.
Perth Glory finally got to take to the pitch on Wednesday night and came out all guns blazing with a 5-3 win over Adelaide United at home.
With their first game out of the way, the Glory will have to get on down to Geelong and meet Western United as the club plays their first of three games in 10 days against the Victorian A-League clubs.
Western United are yet to register a win this season, having lost to Melbourne City and a season-opening draw with Adelaide United.
The club is yet to lose to Perth, having posted a draw in only their second-ever A-League match and was able to beat them 2-0 away in WA and will no doubt like that trend to continue.
Having seen Glory on Wednesday night, it’s very hard to look past them in this encounter so I’ll take them to take the full 3-points down in old sleepy hollow.
After an extended three-week bye, Melbourne Victory resumes their A-League season travelling to the City of Churches to take on Adelaide United at Hindmarsh.
There’s never a dull moment in the “original rivalry” and the atmosphere at Hindmarsh is truly what makes the A-League great.
Melbourne Victory has had plenty of time to sit back and think about what went wrong when they went down to Brisbane Roar 3-1 at the start of the month.
Adelaide United will have a three-day turnaround, coming back from Perth after going down 5-3 to the Glory in a shootout in Perth.
It is set to be a fascinating encounter, but it’s best to play it safe and back the home team in this match.
Both Wellington Phoenix and the Newcastle Jets will be eager to get their first win of this season as the two sides meet in Woolongong this Sunday.
It’s been rough old times on and off the field for the Jets, and sometimes they show a bit of fight but they have very much developed a reputation as the easy beats of the competition.
I along with many other A-League tipsters simply can’t bring ourselves to back the Jets.
The Nix almost got the better of Sydney FC a couple of weeks back at the ‘Gong and I think they should be able to take all three points against the Jets for their first win of the season.
Having the Nix to be ahead at half-time and full-time at the $3.10 price makes for a good value bet.
After a three-week absence, Melbourne Victory resumed their A-League season with a 1-0 away loss to Adelaide United on Saturday night.
They’ll have a quick turnaround and face the high-scoring and highly entertaining Perth Glory this Tuesday night at AAMI Park.
Victory had their chances against Adelaide when Rudy Gestede hit the post early but injuries got the better of them in what was a relatively competitive effort.
The Glory continues their tour of Victoria, with a four-day turnaround coming off a thrilling 4-5 loss to Western United in Geelong in what will easily go down as one of the games of this season.
Since kicking off their A-League season, Perth Glory has shipped eight goals across their first two matches – a 5-3 win over Adelaide and a 4-5 loss against Western United.
Melbourne Victory’s recent efforts against Perth Glory are quite good having remained unbeaten in their past four games, three of those being clean sheets.
We could be in for a thriller here, with Perth wanting to keep on their high scoring ways and Victory desperate to get their first full three points of the season.
There’s good value in both sides splitting the points in this one.