Pressure builds on Melbourne City after winless streak

THEY SAID IT: "It is scary how much improvement he has still got. The last few weeks he has really started to turn the screws at training." - Brisbane acting head coach Ruben Zadkovich on star forward Maco Rojas after his double in the 3-2 win over Melbourne Victory.

MAN OF THE WEEK: Melbourne City academy product Bernardo came back to haunt his former club with a well-taken brace to seal a 2-0 win for Macarthur.

TALKING POINT: The Red and Black Bloc, Western Sydney Wanderers' fan group, walked out in the first-half of the 4-1 loss to Sydney FC on Saturday night. Police ejected 14 people for various unruly acts on a night under investigation by the Wanderers and the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). Then the Roar's fan group, The Den, walked out in the 25th minute of the 3-2 win over Melbourne Victory at Suncorp Stadium. Both fan bases' protests were over policing at the venues.

STAT ATTACK: 27,998. That was the crowd at CommBank Stadium for the Sydney derby, the second-highest ALM crowd of the season. That was only pipped this season by the 28,152 for the first iteration of the derby at Allianz Stadium. Despite the drama on Saturday night the APL would love to be boasting about crowds of that number at other ALM games

BEAT THAT: Without Luke Brattan after the influential skipper's fifth yellow card of the season, Rhyan Grant stood tallest in Sydney FC's derby with Western Sydney. The stand-in captain lit the stadium on fire in the third minute of their wet weather skirmish with an electric header following Joe Lolley's corner.

UNDER PRESSURE: Defending premiers Melbourne City are in eighth position, winless in five games, and in danger of missing the top six unless they can regain their mojo. They expect trophies at the end of each season and coach Aurelio Vidmar has a challenge on his hands to return to title contention.

UP NEXT: Western Sydney will aim to resume winning ways when they host Western United on Friday night. The next day Melbourne City have the daunting task of venturing to top-of-the-table Wellington Phoenix. On Saturday night, Adelaide United host Victory with both coming off a loss, and Perth Glory welcome Newcastle Jets. Sydney host Roar on Sunday and competition heavyweights Macarthur and Central Coast do battle in Campbelltown.

Australian Associated Press