City’s past two opponents – Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar highlighted the physicality John van’t Schip’s men had in their tactics.

The spotlight was on the club for its aggression and accusations of diving, in particular, Roar coach John Aloisi.

Muscat, who was renowned for his aggression as a player was not interested the pugnacity.

“It’s not about physicality or wanting to fight people,” Muscat said.

“In relation to the diving, I think the same, if we look back now, the referees also review their games and no doubt they’ve earmarked and seen what everyone else has seen.

“The reality is the aggression, if we digest that, there’ll be a referee to adjudicate because you can only be as aggressive as the rules allow you to be.

“There’ll be a ref there to police that and make sure everything is fine from that perspective. When we talk about aggression and I talk about it regularly, it’s more about making sure you get to the ball first and making sure you make positive and aggressive decisions.”

Victory sit third on table with a game in hand while City is one point ahead at second and have the wood over its rivals with a 4-1 win in Round 2 and a 2-0 FFA Cup semi-final win 10 days later.

Muscat said it was undecided whether Marco Rojas, who recovered with a hamstring injury will take part, but deemed German winger Maxi Beister as available.

Muscat also scoffed at the idea the derby was extra motivation.

“There’d be players from other clubs watching derbies - Sydney and Melbourne - with a little bit of envy I’d imagine,” he said.

“It’s always a nice occasion and it adds a little bit different to just a normal week.

“I don’t really buy into (extra motivation) because my view is if you decide to play for Melbourne Victory, you’re committed for the entire period of time you’re there.

“If you’ve got to be motivated from week-to-week, game-to-game, playing your old club or playing a derby… it’s probably not enough because we’ve seen it- teams get up to play certain teams and then fall away in other games.

“What does it mean? It means you end up unsuccessful, so from my perspective I demand commitment.

“Yes, we acknowledge and no one needs to tell me what it means to our fans, without doubt we want to send them home with a smile on their faces tomorrow night and we’ll be doing everything possible to make it happen.”

Star striker Besart Berisha is coming off a hat-trick from the 3-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers and is on the verge of matching the A-League all-time record – one shy of Victory legend Archie Thompson currently on 90 goals.

Muscat was adamant it was not mentioned and stated team success was more important, but also saw the light-hearted side of it.

“Put it this way – don’t think he could think about scoring goals more than he already does,” Muscat joked.

“I think secretly (Archie) might be a little bit disappointed, but he’s aware. He’ll revert back to the pens Bes took… he’ll have some fun with it.

“I imagine Bes thinks about scoring goals every minute of the day, he doesn’t need much encouragement, but I wouldn’t have thought the record would make a difference.”