THE Manchester City revolution at Melbourne Heart will start with a bang when the club clashes with cross-town rival Melbourne Victory in Round 1 next season.

The Herald Sun can also ­reveal the A-League is almost certain to go into recess during January’s Asian Cup, to be played in Australia.

It is due in part to the 16-­nation tournament that the most-anticipated Melbourne derby in A-League history will be played at Etihad Stadium on the opening weekend of season 10.

Heart - which is expected to be rebranded Melbourne City, in the coming months - and Victory have met in Round 1 in the past two ­seasons.

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Played in front of a crowd of before 45,202 at Docklands, last October’s game, in particular, was criticised as dour affairand questions were raised about why the first meeting between the clubs was not delayed a few weeks in order to allow the teams to shake off early-season rust.

But it is Victory’s turn to host two of the three derbies next season and if it wants to play those games at the larger capacity Etihad Stadium — rather than AAMI Park — it must get one out of the way immediately.

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The club is again expected to play about five home games at Etihad Stadium and most, if not all, of those must be played early in the season because of the stadium’s Big Bash cricket and AFL commitments.

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Football Federation Australia is also understood to be in favour of scheduling as many blockbusters matches as possible in the opening rounds of the season so as to maximise attendances and TV ratings.

Like last season, the 2014-15 campaign is expected to kick off straight after the AFL and NRL grand finals.

In the latest draft of the ­fixture, not due to be released until mid-year, the season’s first game is to be played on Friday, October 10.

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FFA had been entertaining the idea ofconsidering playing A-League games during the Asian Cup, which will be played in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle from January 9-31.

A-League boss Damien De Bohun had floated the prospect of games being staged elsewhere throughoutin Asia, as well as in Australian markets where Asian Cup games will not be held.

To fit the 27-round season plus finals into the October-May window used last season, it is expected that clubs will play several midweek games. December is likely to be the busiest period.