Five rounds in and Sydney FC have returned to their top of the ladder position. Will they spend the rest of the season on top, as they did in 2016-17, or will they have their dominance challenged?
One of their challengers, unlikely as it seems, is Newcastle. The Jets, despite being pretty poor over the last few seasons, are scoring two and a half goals per game, and only conceding one on average. In fact, they’re one of three undefeated teams.
Can they keep it up? Find out below.
This Week’s Predictions
Me and FADR have actually tipped almost exactly the same for this week, with our only disagreement being on the score in the last game. It’s a small world.1
The Current Ratings
Except for Adelaide United’s down at the bottom, the ratings all converged towards the mean – strong teams got weaker and weak teams got stronger.
Attack Ratings
- Perth Glory, 1.19
- Melbourne City, 1.15 (↑1)
- Sydney FC, 1.15
- Wellington Phoenix, 1.13
- Melbourne Victory, 1.07
- Brisbane Roar, 1.03
- Western Sydney Wanderers, 0.87
- Newcastle Jets, 0.84 (↑2)
- Central Coast Mariners, 0.82 (↓1)
- Adelaide United, 0.74 (↓1)
The Sky Blues have kept their ratings up, and they’ve even been on the rise lately, getting to a high of 3.82. The Phoenix had their rating fall by a fair distance.
Defense Ratings
- Sydney FC, 3.82
- Western Sydney Wanders, 1.37 (↑1)
- Melbourne Victory, 1.30 (↓1)
- Adelaide United, 1.01
- Melbourne City FC, 0.97
- Brisbane Roar, 0.87
- Perth Glory, 0.84 (↑1)
- Central Coast Mariners, 0.79 (↑1)
- Wellington Phoenix, 0.78 (↓2)
- Newcastle Jets, 0.77
The Season Ahead
Some of the biggest changes yet for the season took place in the last round. And the concerned the two teams at the end of the alphabet, Wellington and Western Sydney.
The Phoenix are apparently now going to draw a lot of games it was predicted to win last week, and the Wanderers are having the opposite happen. Wellington’s predicted points tally is 16 less than it was, and the Wanderers’ is still 18 more.
- Sydney FC, 79 pts, +43
- Melbourne Victory, 59 pts, +14
- Western Sydney Wanders, 51 pts, +11 (↑3)
- Melbourne City, 46 pts, +7 (↓1)
- Perth Glory, 36 pts, -1 (↓1)
- Brisbane Roar, 26 pts, -9 (↑1)
- Wellington Phoenix, 20 pts, -13 (↓2)
- Newcastle Jets, 17 pts, -11 (↑2)
- Adelaide United, 13 pts, -19 (↓1)
- Central Coast Mariners, 11 pts, -22 (↓1)
1I try to keep my tips separate from FADR’s – I do mine for the week before I insert hers. However, I’d only just been writing out the predicted scorelines for the season ahead, which probably contributed.
The Flag 