The numbers that matter
The big winners of Round 10 were...
Melbourne Victory, who played by far their best football of the season, if not ever under current manager Arthur Diles.
Granted, they faced the league's second-worst defensive side on home soil, but the first half-hour didn't entirely go their way after a dreadful error from Jason Davidson at left-back to open the door for Ramy Najjarine to level the scoring.
Head coach Arthur Diles was facing mounting pressure earlier in the season - not for the first time in his career - when the Victory had suffered three consecutive losses to other title hopefuls (City, Sydney FC and Brisbane) and the board had neglected to publicly back their man.
Diles kept faith in his processes and his recruits, such as Greek striker Nikos Vergos who went from being on the verge of being cut to now a potential Golden Boot winner in the space of three games.
The big losers of Round 10 were...
Western Sydney Wanderers, after they finally ended their goalscoring drought of three games but got nothing out of it after becoming just the second club of the season to concede 3+ goals to emerging finals contenders Adelaide United.
It left them five points adrift of the top-six owing to Melbourne Victory's win on Monday and hope is being lost in head coach Alen Stajcic, who would not have appreciated a New Year's Day report from Robbie Slater revealing that Wanderers chairman Paul Lederer had targeted esteemed managers John Aloisi and Nick Montgomery.
Aloisi and Montgomery have just taken up coaching positions in the Chinese Super League, but according to Slater, former Mariners player John Hutchinson has recently turned down an assistant coaching offer in China and is firming up as a potential mid-season replacement for Stajcic.
Now on their second four-game winless streak of the season, little is going right for the Wanderers and another defeat on New Year's Day could be the end of Stajcic's tenure.
Team of the Week
Read more about our Team of the Week here.
Goal of the Week
Eli Adams delievered what was quoted on the television broadcast as a "spellbinding" set piece. Such a shame it wasn't converted into points as it was certainly worthy of it!
What the managers said
Mile Sterjovski (Macarthur FC): "I just have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth with a few of the decisions from the referee. I thought it was the same for both teams but I think some of the decisions for the yellow cards were not favourable. I think our captain should be able to speak to the referee. I think the ref lost the game a little bit for both teams today. There were so many fouls that he missed."
Aurelio Vidmar (Melbourne City): "We are negative with what we are doing at the moment. What made us good last season and up to this point is all of the behaviours we're looking for like aggression and moving the ball quickly. That just wasn't evident in the first half. The second half was a lot better. Why was the second half so different than the first half? We've got to find a way through that."
Warren Moon (Central Coast Mariners): "I think it was clear to see that we had the better of the game. With the chances we created, we should have won the match. I'm frustrated because not only did we get nothing from the game, but I'm disappointed with the manner of when it happened and where it happened. I feel the boys deserved more."
Click here for a full summary of post-game comments from each head coach.
Next round's fixtures
Round 11 kicked off almost immediately after the previous with Newcastle's New Year's Day trip to Auckland, continuing a very busy period of holiday football.
