Tony Popovic insisted his Western Sydney Wanderers would find a way to compete with Melbourne Victory, and he certainly meant well. But even without hitting their top gears, the visitors schooled the Wanderers on their own turf.

No way was it a fair fight, however. The ridiculous 45-hour turnaround between Wednesday's 3-2 win over Melbourne City and this affair left Popovic having to play two virtually different teams. Kevin Muscat knew his players had to be ruthless. They were.

So desperate were the Wanderers for players they even started Kerem Bulut, who was charged with intimidation by police following an incident at a McDonald's on Tuesday. The sense of irony wasn't lost on the visiting fans, whose sign – "Fight like McBulut" – lasted barely a few minutes before security intervened.

That left this as a lop-sided bout, but Victory needed the win to keep the pressure on those sides above them. Banana skins have been slipped on by better teams, but the gulf in class between the pair was evident. There's no magician like Fahid Ben Khalfallah at the Wanderers, for example, and he set up all three goals for Victory.

Despite only having won one of their past five, Victory are still the team to beat this season. In the end, it was easy.

Muscat gave Archie Thompson a rare start with Kosta Barbarouses out injured, but it was Popovic who clutched a new set of magnets for his tactics board. Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Yusuke Tanaka were forced to back up and play their second game in 45 hours, but it was otherwise all change.

Popovic also had to account for the upcoming trip to face FC Seoul, which led to him resting Matthew Spiranovic again as the defender deals with a tight hamstring.

Neither side held the upper hand in the opening exchanges, although Victory always looked more threatening. The Wanderers, as per usual, sat back and their best moments came, as always, on the counter-attack.

Romeo Castelen seemed the host's most likely outlet, his pace and trickery troubling Victory left-back Daniel Georgievski. Nick Kalmar is a little rugged for a No.10, but he didn't look out of his depth.

It would be hard to say the same for Sam Gallaway. Starting as the left-back, he was pitted against Thompson and never looked comfortable. Switching him to right-back wasn't the solution, either. Ben Khalfallah was waiting.

The Tunisian couldn't wait to get his hooks into Gallaway and charged at him with pace not long after the move. All the way into the box he went, cutting back for the unmarked Besart Berisha.

It's true that the Albanian striker hasn't been in his usual, world-beating form of late, but seeing red and black stripes fires a valve within. He easily nodded home, breaking his own mini-drought and bagging his fifth in six games against the Wanderers.

Remarkably, the next minute, the Wanderers should have been level. Jashua Sotirio, so impressive against Brisbane last week, was denied by a great save from Nathan Coe. Bulut nearly squeezed in the rebound but Coe diverted it off the line. Kalmar should have completed the job when the loose ball came to him but he belted it into the side netting.

The Wanderers set about making further inroads and gaining more possession either side of half-time, albeit without making Victory sweat all that much. Melbourne had the lead and were comfortable to sit on it.

And while the home side were trying to piece their way back into the game, Victory struck again.

Surging into space with the Wanderers back four all over the place, Ben Khalfallah pinned a magnificent cross in front of Thompson. The A-League's all-time leading scorer added another one to his tally, his seventh of an Indian summer that seems everlasting.

Then Ben Khalfallah did his thing for a third time, and Berisha for a second – the curling pass as good as the blinding finish – and the rout was complete.