Graham Arnold and his Sydney team have ticked off their first box.
The Sky Blues hit the 50 point mark for the season after seeing off the Friday night challenge of a Melbourne City team that threatened while they had 11 players on the pitch but rarely looked likely when they were reduced to 10 men following Manny Muscat's dismissal seven minutes before the interval.
In so doing Sydney not only stretched their lead at the top of the table to what looks like an unassailable margin, but have convinced the experienced coach – if he was in any doubt before – that his current crop of players is the best team he has ever taken charge of during his six years coaching in the A-League.
It's a big call given Arnold's previous successes with Central Coast Mariners, whom he led to two grand finals and one championship, but the Sydney boss is in no doubt about the quality and togetherness of his squad.
"We have got a special group. This is a fantastic group of players, the best I have coached. This is really special, the boys are great mates, they enjoy each other's company enormously," he said after Friday night's game.
Beating City was an important statement for a Sydney team that has so far carried all before it.
It was a small measure of recompense for the 1-0 FFA Cup final defeat Sydney suffered to City at the same AAMI Park ground three months earlier, and it showed the improvement they have made since they were lucky to secure a 1-1 home draw with City when the pair clashed for the first time this A-League season a fortnight before Christmas at ANZ Stadium.
Reaching the 50 point target is one thing, but neither the Sky Blues boss, nor his team, will rest until the full mission is accomplished.
Arnold has set his side its next target, which is to top the points record of 57 for a 27-game A-League season: that was set in 2012-13 by Sydney's bitter cross town rivals, Western Sydney Wanderers.
With six games remaining, and four of them at home, it should be a straightforward enough task for Arnold's tough, skilful, resilient and highly focused team to pick up the eight points needed to tick the coach's second box.
But that will merely be another waystation en route to the final destination, which is, of course, to ensure a season of record breaking endeavour is not wasted by failing in the finals.
Finishing atop the A-League ladder, as Sydney surely must now do – it would take a collapse of prodigious proportions and a mighty effort by Melbourne Victory to capitalise on it – would deliver the Premiers Plate, the club's first silverware since they finished top of the regular season table in 2009-10.
And, as it should, that will give Sydney all the advantages the table topping team deserve to go on and win the grand final, which they would host if they win their home semi-final.
Arnold, of course, has been around too long to take anything for granted, but he is genuinely enthused by the achievements of a team he believes is still growing in confidence and understanding despite its tremendous record so far this campaign – it has lost only once in 21 league matches.
They were, as a unit, sorely tested in the week leading up to Friday's match by the off-field events flowing on from the derby defeat the Saturday before.
The drama surrounding the Western Sydney Wanderers fans, their offensive banner depicting Arnold and the fallout and media focus on his reaction ensured that he was never out of the spotlight as he tried to prepare his players to get over what could have become a psychological handicap after experiencing their first league loss of the campaign.
Both the coach and the team rose to the challenge in tremendous style on Friday night, with Arnold saying that Sydney FC were still angry at having lost at all to the Wanderers.
"There was never really any doubt in my view that the boys would jump back on the horse straight away. We still believe that we were hard done by last week, that our performance last week was one of our best of the season. The circus brought the players closer together," Arnold said after the win over City.
City had been lauded, certainly at the start of the season, for the array of attacking talent it had amassed with players like Tim Cahill, Bruno Fornaroli , Fernando Brandan and Nicolas Colazo available to coach Michael Valkanis.
But it is Sydney who have set a benchmark this season for ruthlessness in front of goal and invention in their lead-up play, and as Arnold points out, it takes a special team to be able to hold up Alex Brosque, Brazilian front man Bobo, Milos Ninkovic, Filip Holosko and Bernie Ibini for 90 minutes.
Arnold is particularly enthusiastic about the contribution being made by Ninkovic, the Serbian playmaker whom, he says, is one of the best players he has ever coached.
"In my view he is technically one of the best players who has ever played in the A-League. Last year I felt he was very good (but) we probably didn't have the players in front of him to score the goals or make the runs he needed.
"The connection between Bobo and him is getting better and better, he (the latter) has been fantastic for us as a team worker. The player weren't seeing Bobo's runs (earlier in the season) but they are now and I think the front line is going to get much better."
Sydney can move one step closer to confirming the Premiers Plate next weekend when they host their closest pursuer, Victory, and Arnold promises no let up.
"The pressure is on them to try to keep the distance a bit closer. The main goal is to be the best team in the history of the 10-team competition, that (means achieving) 58 points."
