Macarthur vs Newcastle Jets Prediction: Bulls to be buoyed by early-season success

Macarthur will be looking to make it two wins from their opening two Australian A-League Men's matches this season when they host Newcastle Jets at Campbelltown Stadium on Friday (09:45, TNT Sports 3).

The Jets, meanwhile, will be desperate to bounce back from an opening-round defeat to Melbourne City. Ahead of the game, you can check out my Macarthur vs Newcastle Jets prediction, featuring all the latest team news and match odds, below.

Team News

Macarthur are likely to keep faith with the starting XI that served them so well in their 6-1 hammering of Perth Glory last weekend. The Bulls were 5-0 up at half-time and six to the good before making their first substitutions in the 67th minute.

Jed Drew, Jake Hollman, Tomislav Uskok, Marin Jakolis (x2) and Valere Germain were all on the scoresheet in Sydney and will be looking to add to their early-season totals on Friday.

Midfielder Kristian Popovic remains injured, however, and will miss the Jets' visit to Campbelltown Stadium. Chris Ikonomidis and Bernardo Oliveira are also expected to be absent again for Mile Sterjovski's side.

Football Odds

The Jets are still without 18-year-old forward Oscar Fryer, who joined from Sydney FC in the off-season.

Rob Stanton's squad appears to have come through unscathed from the club's 1-0 opening-round defeat to Melbourne City, but the Jets head coach could make a couple of alterations to his starting XI.

Forwards Clayton Taylor and Ben Gibson are both pushing for starts, as is defender Phillip Cancar.

Macarthur vs Newcastle Jets Odds

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Macarthur are 5/6 to make it back-to-back wins, giving the Bulls an implied probability of 54.5% on Friday, while the Jets are 12/5, or a 29.4% chance, to get off the mark with a victory in Sydney.

The draw, meanwhile, is priced at 11/4, and both teams to score at 2/5.

Ex-AS Monaco attacker Germain is 23/20 favourite to score anytime, followed by teammates Harrison Sawyer (6/4) and Ariath Piol (9/5), while Gibson and Taylor (both 11/5) are considered the Jets' most likely scorers.

Match Result & Total Goals Over/Under 2.5 - Macarthur & Over 2.5 @ 11/8

Despite off-field issues plaguing the club, everything is going swimmingly on the pitch for the Bulls, who have won all six games they have played this season, the first five of those helping them to lift the Australia Cup in Melbourne last month.

Macarthur also made the playoffs in 2023/24, finishing fifth out of 12 teams, and their 4-0 defeat to Sydney FC in the quarter-finals can be largely attributed to the 27th-minute dismissal of Kealey Adamson.

The Jets, meanwhile, ended third-bottom last season to make it back-to-back 10th-place finishes, and they haven't reached the playoffs since coming second in 2017/18.

Last season's 17-goal top scorer, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, is no longer at the club having left for Scottish Premiership side Motherwell in the off-season, and they could well struggle at the top end of the pitch without him. Even with the Australia international leading the line, the Jets scored just 39 times in the league, with only Western United (36) netting fewer.

Stanton's side were unable to break through a stubborn Melbourne City defence last weekend and they will fear being shut out in back-to-back games on Friday up against a Macarthur outfit that won their final three matches of the Australia Cup 1-0 before their 6-1 win over Perth Glory on the A-League Men's opening weekend.

I don't think we'll see as many as seven goals scored on Friday but that has already happened between these sides this season as Macarthur edged the Jets out 4-3 in the last 16 of the Australia Cup in August, with the Bulls recovering from 2-0 and 3-2 down to advance to the next stage of the competition.

There were also four goals shared in the last league meeting between them in Newcastle in February as they played out a 2-2 draw, and both teams to score has been a winner in the last four head-to-heads.

I'm going for Macarthur to win and over 2.5 total goals rather than a home victory and both teams to score as I don't have much confidence in Newcastle to breach the Bulls' backline. But, I wouldn't be surprised to see another big win for the hosts after their resounding success last week.

Anytime Goalscorer - Marin Jakolis (MAC) @ 15/8

Jakolis only scored twice in 24 A-League Men's appearances for Melbourne City last season after joining on loan from French side Angers; however, he's already matched that total in one game for Macarthur, bagging a brace in last weekend's annihilation of Perth Glory.

The 27-year-old was more of a provider of goals for City in 2023/24, registering seven A-League assists, and the only season of his professional career in which he scored more than five league goals came in 2021/22 when he struck 10 times in 19 games for Croatian side Sibenik.

He's started the current campaign on fire, though, and I don't just mean in the A-League.

Macarthur's season began on July 30 as they opened up with a 2-1 win over O'Connor Knights in the Australia Cup, a match in which Jakolis set up Luke Brattan for the winning goal.

The Croatian got off the mark himself in the next round, notching the final two goals of a 4-3 victory over Friday's opponents, Newcastle Jets, to seal a comeback for the Bulls at Maitland Regional Sportsground.

Jakolis was unable to add to his tally in the quarter-finals or semi-finals but he grabbed the all-important goal in the final as his side edged out Melbourne Victory 1-0 at AAMI Park, a feat that must've felt sweet for an ex-City player.

His double last Sunday means he now has five goals in his last five appearances, while he also struck in City's penultimate regular game of the 2023/24 A-League Men's season, meaning he has scored in two of his last three appearances in the competition - excluding playoffs.

At 15/8, I think Jakolis is well worth taking on to score anytime on Friday. At City, players such as Jamie Maclaren and Tolgay Arslan were expected to hoover up most of the chances, and that meant the Croatian took a back seat in front of goal.

However, while Germain is the main man at Macarthur, there's probably more cohesion in the team and an acceptance that they need to work as a unit and share the strikes around.

Jakolis should be full of confidence after last weekend's exploits, and that should help him to get on the scoresheet again at Campbelltown Stadium against one of the league's weakest sides.

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