Galekovic believes amazing Adelaide have to get even better

Now that Adelaide United's fabulous unbeaten run has taken them to the top of the A-League table, what do they have to do to stay there? Captain Eugene Galekovic said the answer was simple - get even better, because everyone is gunning for them now.

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"I think when you look at it from the other teams' perspective, everyone wants to knock off the top team," Galekovic told The World Game.

"So the games coming up are going to be even harder for us.

"I think every team is going to get better in the last few games before the finals, because they mean so much, so we have to get better if we want to stay where we are.

"And you want to get better leading into the finals, because that's when you want to play your best football.

"All we can worry about is thinking positively and trying to extend our lead. We've got a big game against Melbourne City this week and we know where they're dangerous and what we need to do about that, but the main thing for us is to concentrate on ourselves and our own game."

Adelaide's run has been stunning to watch. They couldn't get a win in their first eight games, losing five and drawing three, but in their 14 games since they have 11 wins and three draws.

After being on the bottom of the table from rounds four to eight, Adelaide rose to seventh by round 12 and sixth by round 14.

They remained sixth through to round 18, while they gradually reduced the points deficit between themselves and the top five, and then jumped three places to third in round 19, where they remained the week after.

Adelaide then moved up to second in round 21 and finally took the competition lead in round 22, last weekend, but their advantage is only slight - one point over both second and third-placed Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar.

Fourth-placed Melbourne City, who are only four points off the lead, will play Adelaide at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.

"It's tight at the top and it's a big challenge for us, especially with the games we've got coming up," Galekovic said.

"We're playing City and then Wanderers the following week.

"A couple of wins would make it look very good for us, but a couple of losses and it probably changes the whole thing around against us.

"We want to keep building on what we've been doing and win this week and see where we're at after that."

City will be armed with the competition's leading goal-scorer, Bruno Fornaroli, who has 20, and also Aaron Mooy, who has not only recorded a league-leading 17 assists, but has 10 goals himself.

Galekovic said Adelaide had done their homework on the pair.

"It's going to be tough. They've scored the most goals in the competition," he said.

"But we've conceded the least amount of goals. Defensively, we've been very strong and we've been scoring goals as well.

"They've got some players we have to watch out for. Mooy has been great this season, one of the best players in the league, and Fornaroli has done very well also.

"They know how to set up and score goals, but we've got some firepower too and I'm pretty sure they'll have to watch us closely as well.

"It's only a 10-team competition, so it's easy to study teams because there are only five games a week. You want to watch good football and good players and City are like that, so I've seen a fair bit of them.

"I think everyone knows pretty well how everyone else plays in this league and I'm not expecting a lot different from City this week.

"Mooy can put a good through ball in and his set pieces are very good. He can put the ball on Fornaroli's head, or Fornaroli can go either foot with the ball on the ground.

"He's the best striker in the league and he and Mooy are two players we'll have to keep a close eye on."