JORDAN had a decent Monday with five tips and three winners.
He says: “A small interest for me this morning where I go to Australia for the FFA Cup which involves the A-League sides for the first time.
“Melbourne City were a team I followed extensively last season and over the summer they have done a bit of business. They lost the best player in the A-League last season in Aaron Mooy who quite surprisingly was recalled by City and still he stays in Manchester.
“He had 20 assists last season and if they can’t replace him they’ll be in trouble. They have, however, added to their firepower up top with the signing of Tim Cahill. Perhaps one of the best Australian footballers in history will be a defensive nightmare if he and Bruno Fornaroli can form a partnership.
“Harry Novillo was also a loss in the summer. The winger had a lot of pace and contributed to many of their goals last season. Their defence was bad enough last year and despite finishing fourth overall they actually conceded the third most amount of goals in the league.
“They haven’t done much additions at the back end with only a signing of an U-21 defender for Adelaide. Melbourne scored 63 goals last year, 14 more than any other team. Mooy and Novillo were involved in 46 of them which is a huge loss of attacking force so I’ll be eager to see where they add.
“Melbourne City have played one game since the April 24 which was a friendly against Port Melbourne on the July 20. They will now be travelling across country to a side who are fourth in their domestic league and have had 17 games in the space of Melbourne’s last competitive fixture.
“They have the best home record in their league with only one defeat in nine and I think they can score here as they are much more match sharp. This isn’t a team who play defensive with 11 of their 18 league games seeing over 3.5 goals this season which leads me to believe we could have a few here.
“Over 4.5 pays 5-4 with MarathonBet and while I think that’s possible I prefer the idea of BTTS. Bookies are giving Melbourne a bit too much respect in my opinion considering the little football they have played over the past couple of months.
“Both to score and over 2.5 pays 11-8 with the same firm which is also possible but with the good price without the third goal I’ll take a chance.
“For the brave Floreat Athena +3AH pays 4-5 with Stan James. A 3-0, 4-1, 5-2 loss etc would see a void.”
Australia FFA Cup (11.30am)
Floreat Athena v Melbourne City BTTS (5-4, 365) – 2 points