Ajax will be looking to make it six league wins on the bounce when they visit Stadion de Goffert on Saturday to lock horns with NEC.
The Eredivisie leaders also have the chance to complete a league double over their hosts off the back of a 5-0 victory in the reverse fixture.
Match preview
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Ajax suffered a second consecutive cup-final defeat to PSV Eindhoven following a 2-1 loss in Sunday's KNVB-Beker final at De Kuip.
Erik ten Hag's men opened the scoring midway through the first half through Ryan Gravenberch before second-half goals from Erick Gutierrez and Cody Gakpo turned the game on its head.
Prior to that, De Godenzonen saw off the threat of Sparta Rotterdam in a narrow 2-1 triumph and remain four points clear at the top with five games left to play.
The Dutch giants now resume their title charge against an opposing side yet to win any of the last 24 meetings between the sides all the way back to 2006.
Saturday's visitors have conceded the fewest number of goals away from home (seven) in the entire division so far, while only Feyenoord have found the back of the net on more occasions.
NEC saw their two-game unbeaten streak come to an end last time out following a 2-0 defeat to FC Twente two Saturdays ago.
Virgil Misidjan broke the deadlock 20 minutes into the second half after which Dimitrios Limnios scored the clincher to sink Rogier Meijer's men in Nijmegen.
Consequently, the Eniesee have slipped into the second half of the league table but are only just a point shy of Go Ahead Eagles in ninth.
Having failed to win any of their last 10 home games since October, Saturday's hosts will be keen to come out on top this weekend and give the fans reason to cheer.
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Team News
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Zakaria Labyad and Sean Klaiber continue to nurse knee injuries and will not play any part in this one.
Ajax will also have to make do with the absence of the Brazilian Antony, who is ruled out with an ankle problem.
Nicolas Tagliafico missed the defeat to PSV due to a knock, but the Argentine is expected to be back in the matchday squad.
Twenty-year-old Ali Akman is suspended for Saturday's game having received his marching orders against Twente last time out.
Forward Pedro Ruiz recently underwent knee surgery and remains unavailable for NEC alongside Edgar Barreto.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Marquez, Guth, Odenthal; El Karouani, Bruijn, Schone, Van Rooy; Tavsan, Mattsson, Okita
Ajax possible starting lineup:
Stekelenburg; Blind, Martinez, Timber, Mazraoui; Gravenberch, Alvarez, Klaassen; Tadic, Haller, Berghuis
We say: NEC 0-4 Ajax
With only the league title left to play for, Ajax can turn fully their attention to securing a 36th domestic crown. We are tipping them to cruise to a comfortable victory in this one, scoring plenty of goals en route.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Ajax win with a probability of 82.96%. A draw had a probability of 11.5% and a win for NEC had a probability of 5.53%.
The most likely scoreline for an Ajax win was 0-2 with a probability of 12.39%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-3 (11.87%) and 0-1 (8.62%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (5.46%), while for a NEC win it was 1-0 (1.9%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 8.6% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Ajax would win this match.
