Western United vs Melbourne City Prediction: Nabbout to nab another Melbourne derby goal

Fresh from their 3-1 humiliation at the hands of city rivals Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City have the chance to make amends in another Melbourne derby on Monday (08:00, TNT Sports 3), this time against Western United at AAMI Park.

Below you can find my Western United vs Melbourne City prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds, ahead of this round-three clash in the Australia A-League Men's.

Team News

Ramy Najjarine, Ben Garuccio and Khoder Kaddour have all missed Western United's start to the A-League Men's season and the trio look set to be sidelined once again on Monday.

Besian Kutleshi is back from international duty, however, after helping Australia's U17s qualify for the AFC U17 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia next year. The 15-year-old started the Joeys' 0-0 draw with Indonesia last Monday and is available to make his A-League Men's debut this weekend against the club he left in the off-season.

Hiroshi Ibusuki scored his first Western United goal last weekend and looks set to lead the line again on Monday.

Football Odds

Melbourne City midfielder James Jeggo serves the final game of a two-match ban on Monday, while captain and left-back Aziz Behich has been handed a retrospective two-game suspension for an incident in first-half stoppage time of last Saturday's Melbourne derby with Victory.

Head coach Aurelio Vidmar will hope to have Mathew Leckie back from injury for this round three clash with Western United, but the contest comes too soon for Max Caputo and Alessandro Lopane.

Western United vs Melbourne City Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Western United vs Melbourne City page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Western United are 21/10 to get their first three points of the season on Monday, giving them an implied win probability of 32.3%, while Melbourne City are 1/1, or a 50% chance, to return to winning ways.

The draw is priced at 5/2, both teams to score at 8/15 and over 2.5 total goals at 4/7.

Match Result - Melbourne City @ 1/1

After such sustained success in the A-League Men's, finishing top of the Premiership pile for three years between 2021 and 2023, and last finishing outside the top two in 2019, the 2023/24 season was a bitter pill to swallow for Melbourne City, who scraped into the final playoff spot, 16 points behind champions Central Coast Mariners.

There was further disappointment to come in the playoffs as Victory beat them on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time.

City then lost some key players during the off-season, notably A-League Men's all-time top goalscorer Jamie Maclaren and 2023/24 leading marksman Tolgay Arslan, who left for India and Japan respectively.

Nevertheless, City started the current league campaign with a solid 1-0 win over Newcastle Jets. It wasn't pretty, but it was a good base to build from.

Anything they had built up was dismantled in 25 minutes by Victory last weekend, however, as City went 3-0 down in the Melbourne derby. They stopped the bleeding after that and managed to grab a goal in the second half, but the damage was already done and now they must regroup to ensure they prevent back-to-back derby defeats at AAMI Park.

A match with Western United doesn't register on the same scale as one with Victory, but local bragging rights are still on offer here with the Tarneit club staging their Melbourne derbies at the home of City and Victory while they work on redeveloping Ironbark Fields to stage such a contest.

Western United endured a disappointing season of their own in 2023/24 as they finished 11th, just four points above wooden spooners Perth Glory, but they've made an encouraging start to the current campaign, holding runners-up Wellington Phoenix to a 1-1 in New Zealand before playing out a stalemate by the same scoreline with Western Sydney Wanderers last week.

They will lose their 'home' advantage on Monday, however, while Melbourne City will look to make amends for their previous failings at AAMI Park.

City have a good recent record in this fixture, winning five of the previous six head-to-heads, including both this calendar year. They won the first 2-1 at AAMI Park in January before beating United 1-0 at the same venue in April.

It could be a close contest on Monday, but I think City's superior quality should see them edge this 'West v East' clash.

Anytime Goalscorer - Andrew Nabbout (MC) @ 13/8

A bad injury affected Andrew Nabbout's 2023/24 season, with the 10-cap Australia international only managing to make 10 appearances, failing to score in any of them.

However, it's been a positive start to the current campaign for the 31-year-old, who began by putting City 3-2 ahead in their Australia Cup clash with Perth Glory on August 3, only for the Melbourne club to end up on the losing side after extra time.

Nabbout didn't score in his side's opening A-League Men's match last month as Marco Tilio's second-minute effort proved to be enough to get past Newcastle Jets, but the Carlton-born attacker did manage to fire his first league goal of the season last week, albeit a consolation strike in City's Melbourne derby defeat to Victory.

Fellow forward Yonatan Cohen is yet to get off the mark since joining from Maccabi Tel Aviv in the off-season, and the Israeli has been taken off in the second half against both the Jets and Victory.

Nabbout, meanwhile, has played 90-plus minutes in all three City games this term, only being substituted in stoppage time of the win in Newcastle.

He's averaging 3.5 shots in this season's A-League, taking two against the Jets and firing off five in the Melbourne derby, so he's not been shy to try his luck.

At 13/8, I'm happy to back Nabbout to get on the scoresheet again for City.

Offers

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down.

You can read all our latest Football Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.