Footballers can be sentimental creatures. Cast your mind back to the first ever Big Blue. The source of Melbourne Victory’s opening A-League goal that day? Archibald Gerald Thompson.

Fast-forward nearly a decade and what better way to celebrate season 10 than with a hat-trick against the team Archie Thompson just loves to score against. Fourteen goals against Sydney FC – the last seven coming in little over two years – has marked an Indian summer for the evergreen striker.

It’s a reminder that tactics alone don’t always determine matches. In clashes between key rivals, filled with passion and drama, basic human psychology can often play a vital role. Archie loves to score against Sydney, Shane Smeltz loves to score against Victory, and Sebastian Ryall just really hates his old club.

But scratch below the human stories and the drama of an excellent 33rd Big Blue encounter and you’ll find a very strong performance from Sydney FC, who had the chance to edge this game thanks to two key tactical match-ups.

England coach Roy Hodgson is a solid supporter of the 4-4-2 because of the great pairings or partnerships it encourages in teams, and here Sydney had three that really mattered – Shane Smeltz and Marc Janko – the “Teutonic two”; Bernie Ibini and Pedj Bojic; and, most importantly, Milos Dimitrijevic and Terry Antonis.

With Smeltz returning from an injured-ravaged lay-off, he’s looked short both in pace and fitness, and especially exposed when played as a wide forward. Coupled with the impressive Janko though, Smeltz is showing glimmers of the form that saw him win back-to-back Golden Boot crowns as Sydney follow Perth’s lead and show how dangerous a two-striker system can be.

With Ibini and Bojic you get a Central Coast reunion, where then-gaffer Graham Arnold used attacking fullbacks to great effect. Whilst in this game Sydney didn’t play the system that defined that Mariners era (4-4-2 diamond, with Ibini playing a narrow, but attacking right midfielder), the interplay between these two players was a key feature.

Preferring a flat four in midfield, both Alex Brosque and Ibini found great joy coming inside and attempting to receive the ball either side of Melbourne Victory’s two midfield screens, Carl Valeri and Mark Milligan. If the Victory fullbacks followed their opposite numbers inside, it then created space for Sydney’s own fullbacks, Bojic and Alex Gersbach to get forward and to attempt to whip in crosses.

While, post-game, Arnold bemoaned the quality of his side’s final delivery, the tactic to push the fullbacks high (knowing the Victory wingers and their preference for not tracking back) was one key area where Sydney enjoyed great success, with their opening goal initiated down this right flank.

If there was one single partnership that dictated this game however it was that between Dimitrijevic and Antonis. In a customarily phlegmatic post-match interview Kevin Muscat lamented the fact that his side “couldn’t get control in midfield” – in no small part due to the excellent work of Sydney’s central pairing. With 77 completed passes (at a success rate of 82%) – more than twenty more than any of the four ball-playing midfielders on the park – Dimitrijevic was especially impressive. The poise and coolness with which both he and Antonis controlled and dictated Sydney’s possession was crucial to their team’s dominance, especially in the twenty-five minute patch before the pre-half time sucker punch of Thompson’s second goal.

Dimitrijevic’s ability to receive a pass, play through a line of defence, and then move to re-initiate an attacking sequence was especially impressive; as best demonstrated by Sydney’s third goal – a flowing move in which Dimitrijevic received and gave the ball on five occasions, including the assist to Smeltz.

In the 75th minute Antonis regained possession and played square to Dimitrijevic. He dribbled forward, drawing the attention of Valeri before playing forward to Brosque. Under pressure, Brosque played back to the Serbian, which drew Valeri deeper, and Dimitrijevic then played a one-two with Antonis, moving swiftly around Valeri’s press to receive the return ball. Under pressure from Barbarouses and Broxham he then fed a first-touch ball to Grant, racing forward from left back, who played a return ball to Dimitrijevic. He then rolled a measured pass to the feet of Smeltz, who turned, shot and scored.

While the plaudits go to Smeltz for his calm finish, without excellent awareness by Dimitrijevic in any one of these five previous possessions, the chance wouldn’t have existed in the first place.

For Melbourne Victory their greatest strength was also their most crucial weakness, and it had everything to do with the absence of Gui Finkler in the important No10 role.

Against the Mariners, Muscat initially tried to solve the problem of Finkler’s absence playing Fahid Ben Khalfallah centrally, and Thompson wide. Whilst Ben Khalfallah is arguably a better ball player and creator, it was the switch to play the more direct and attack-minded Thompson centrally that blew the game open – with the Victory grabbing three goals in eleven minutes.

What you get with Thompson, and what was again highly effective here, is essentially a deep-lying striker, who when an attack is on, will push up onto the shoulder of the last defender. For Melbourne’s second goal rather than holding a more central position between the lines as Finkler would, Thompson raced to the left shoulder of Petkovic (with Berat Berisha flanking Sydney’s other centre defender), and as soon as the Serbian had to commit to stop the onrushing Barbarouses, Thompson was free, wide and able to shoot past the keeper.

This movement, with Melbourne’s highly dangerous front four rotating between the various roles, was too much for Sydney’s defence, especially with the fullbacks pushing high whenever possible.

What you lose without Finkler though is a deeper-lying link player, who can help support the two more defensive midfielders in Melbourne’s system, and often the Victory had Milligan pushing higher into this role and space, but therefore making it easier for either Ibini or Brosque to get past the isolated Valeri.

With the first Big Blue of the season being a cagey affair, both coaches should be praised for committing to attacking brands of football. Arnold got his reward for playing two strikers and pushing his fullbacks high, and Muscat for playing Thompson at No10 and isolating Sydney’s back two.

For the Sydney boss – who described the performance as “the best game we’ve played this season” – it was a more confident performance from the Sky Blues, who looked to have resolved the loss of the influential Corey Gameiro, with a new attacking rejig.

For Muscat, it’s a chance to threaten the record for the best unbeaten start to a season, as Victory look to keep pace with Perth.