Melbourne City vs Central Coast Mariners Betting Tips & Predictions

Melbourne City’s Hyundai A-League title challenge has hit a bit of a stumbling block in recent weeks with defeats to Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets preceding last weekend’s home draw to cross city rivals Melbourne Victory. This has left them six points adrift of top of the table Brisbane Roar down in 4^th position, and the incredibly tight title race seems to be opening up a bit. The top two are now four and five points clear of the rest of the pack.

Central Coast Mariners come into the match having lost four of their last five matches and having lost all but two of their away days so far this season. This has left them rock bottom of the Hyundai A-League table, and their measly 12 point tally puts them seven points adrift of 9^th placed Wellington Phoenix. As we’ll see below, this is largely down to their truly shocking defensive displays throughout the season.

Reasons for Betting Tips

Melbourne City have had no troubles scoring goals so far this season, and in recent weeks they have netted 16 times in seven matches. But defensively they have been known to collapse, and their record of 15 goals conceded during this period backs that claim up. Central Coast Mariners could be in for a long day at the back on Sunday then. They have conceded 17 times in their last seven outings, but they have managed to reply with 11 goals of their own during this period.

Central Coast Mariners haven’t managed to keep a clean sheet since April so I would put my house on Melbourne City scoring on Sunday, but the visitors have netted in nine of their last 11 matches and come up against a Melbourne City side who haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last nine outings.

Both teams have found the back of the net in all of these nine matches, and as we mentioned before the visitors have seen both teams score in nine of their last 11 games in the A-League. This makes a high scoring game with both teams finding the net look very likely to me, and a comprehensive 3-1 win for the hosts looks good to me too.

Recent Form

All competitions; most recent first.

Melbourne City: DLLWDWD

Central Coast Mariners: LLWLLDW

Head to Head

Melbourne City thrashed Central Coast Mariners 5-1 away from home at the start of December to make it two wins out of two for them this season, but before that they hadn’t beat Central Coast Mariners in their last nine attempts, with six of those ending in defeat for Melbourne City.

Statistics

100% of Melbourne City’s home matches this season have seen Over 2.5 Goals scored, with 89% of Central Coast Mariners’ away days seeing the same outcome. In addition, 89% of both Melbourne City’s home games and Central Coast’s away games have ended with both teams having hit the back of the net.

Team News

Melbourne City – Young defender Connor Chapman has picked up a minor knee injury which will keep him out for a couple of weeks, with him joining long term absentee Corey Gameiro on the casualty list.

Central Coast Mariners – First team midfielder Jake McGing is suffering from a muscular injury that will keep him out for a week or so, whilst Jake Adelson continues to occupy the sidelines with his serious knee injury.

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