Serie A the league to watch

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This article was published 02/09/2022 (1454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Is it too soon to be excited for a title race?

Probably. The European football season is barely a month old and most clubs are still trying to find their feet. Also, squads were only finalized with Thursday’s closing of the transfer window, meaning the admittedly small sample size we’re already overanalyzing is tenuous to say the least.

That said, we know Bayern Munich will have the Bundesliga wrapped up by April, and Paris Saint-Germain will similarly run away with Ligue 1. Ho hum, nothing to see there.

In Spain, a resurgent albeit morally damaged Barcelona (not that morals count for much in modern sport) will probably contend for La Liga alongside the big Madrid outfits. In England, it’s difficult (sorry, Arsenal) to conjure a scenario that doesn’t have Manchester City claiming a third successive Premier League and fifth in six seasons.

Of the continent’s “top 5” divisions, that leaves Serie A to provide an actual, meaningful title race — the kind that goes down to the wire and numbers three, four or even more participants.

Funny enough, it wasn’t so long ago that the Italian top flight was the absolute last place we’d look for meaningful matches mid-spring. Inter Milan won five straight Scudetti in the wake of Calciopoli and underlined their dominance with the Jose Mourinho-guided treble of 2010. More recently, Juventus rattled off an unprecedented nine titles without interruption.

But when AC Milan lifted the trophy in May of this year, Serie A became the highest-profile domestic league to have produced a different champion in each of the past three seasons. We have to scroll some way down UEFA’s coefficient ranking to search out the next-best division to have managed the feat — Denmark’s SuperLiga, in 18^th place.

Going into the schedule’s matchday five — highlighted by Saturday’s Derby della Madonnina (11 a.m., FUBO) — any one of six sides can realistically harbour title aspirations, and that’s discounting Atalanta, who happen to top the table.

Derby rivals Inter and AC Milan are obviously among them, as are Juventus and Napoli. No surprises there. But capital tandem Lazio and AS Roma merit inclusion as well, and Roma, who currently employ the mercurial Mourinho, might actually be the early favourite.

Winners of the inaugural UEFA Conference League, the Giallorossi, unfairly mocked for ecstatically celebrating their triumph in the continent’s third-tier club competition, seem to have channelled that momentum into mounting a legitimate Scudetto challenge.

It’s an attractive project.

Adored as the most popular club in one of the world’s most iconic cities, Roma have used their location, the magnetism of Mourinho and the prospect of immortality to lure two of Europe’s most sought-after free agents to Viale dei Gladiatori: Paulo Dybala and Andrea Belotti. The duo will no doubt be hoping to emulate Francesco Totti and Gabriel Batistuta, who combined for 33 goals when La Lupa last won the title in 2001.

Totti, in particular, remains an almost godlike figure in the Eternal City, and Dybala, who left rivals Juventus to make the switch south, has already been depicted in the likeness of a Caesar on a Monti district mural. Such is the allure of a championship in Rome. (AS Roma will visit Udinese on Sunday, at 1:45 p.m., on FUBO.)

Neither incoming Roma forward, however, is likely to score as many goals as Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic, who has four from four outings to start the season. And given the recent exits of Dybala and fellow attacker Alvaro Morata, the Bianconeri will need all the offense the Serbia international can provide.

Incidentally, Vlahovic will return to Tuscany for a showdown with former club Fiorentina in Saturday’s first kickoff (8 a.m., FUBO). The Viola have, themselves, lost only once this term, and a win or draw would further clot the top half of the table.

It bears mentioning at this point that, similar to the variety in the standings, none of the top five Serie A goalscorers represent the same club. Ditto the five playmakers who lead the league in assists. Quality performances are coming from everywhere, and mass unpredictability is the result.

Speaking of unpredictability, consider Satutday’s late showdown between Lazio and Napoli (1:45 p.m., FUBO) — level on eight points and just two back of Atalanta. Either could ascend to first place by day’s end, but then there are nine (NINE!) outfits who could hold that position by Monday.

Having narrowly missed out on a Champions League berth in the spring (just three points separated the four teams who vied for the coveted spot — notice a pattern here?), Lazio are unbeaten to begin the campaign and in Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Ciro Immobile return perhaps Italian football’s best midfielder and best forward for a Scudetto push.

Napoli, meanwhile, are without a title since the days of Maradona but have finished runners-up four times in the past decade. They lead Serie A in scoring and may well have pulled off the transfer of the summer — in any league, anywhere — by signing 21-year-old Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for €11 million from Dinamo Batumi.

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That some of the division’s best, most exciting footballers play for these perhaps outside contenders says all we really need to know about its compelling, competitive nature.

Too soon to anticipate a tight, proper title race?

Maybe. But that’s never stopped us before.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter @JerradPeters