Many pundits have classified the Milanese devil’s success as a surprise, considering Milan’s opponents, the squad Stefano Pioli had at his disposal and the permanent unavailability of players throughout the season. For AC Milan, the new season will be even tougher than the last, with the Rossoneri having to defend their title against opponents eager for revenge. Their arch-rivals, Inter, the Italian vice-champions, seem to be Milan’s main title rivals. Inter are the side that in the 2020-2021 season ended Juventus Torino’s incredible run of nine-year Serie A dominance.
While Milan and Inter will continue their battle for supremacy with the huge rivalry that shapes their destinies as their main motivation, Juventus Torino seems unable to chase the “scudetto” this season too. In the first six rounds of the season, Juventus have recorded four draws, looking more like a lowly team than a team fighting for supremacy. The loss last year of 3 of its superstars, Cristiano Ronaldo – last summer, Paulo Dybala and Giorgio Chiellini – both this summer, have cracked the resilient structure of Massimiliano Allegri’s team, which has the difficult task of redeveloping the great Juve.
The pleasant surprise this season could be Napoli. Luciano Spalletti’s summer clean-up has kick-started the rebuilding at “gli-azzurri”, with the Italian coach asking for and receiving patience from the club’s management. But the first stages have shown an extremely impatient Napoli, a spectacular Napoli, a Napoli ready to skip many of the stages of the reconstruction I mentioned earlier. The success in the Champions League, 4-1 against FC Liverpool, the English and European vice-champions, astonished the football world and made the Neapolitan fans dream of the title they have been waiting for since 1990, since Diego Maradona’s time! It will be interesting to see if the enthusiasm of the new Napoli will be enough for Spalletti’s team in the battle with Milan, Inter, Juventus and the other Serie A giants.
Atalanta is also one of the surprises of the early season. Gian Piero Gasperini’s team, the longest-serving coach in Serie A, is no longer the team that just two seasons ago delighted with super offensive play (98 goals in the 2019-2020 season and 90 in the next!), but now has much more maturity. Atalanta will certainly be one of the bright spots in Serie A this season and will referee the title fight.
AS Roma has already got used to Jose Mourinho, who arrived in the Eternal City last summer. At the end of his first season, the Portuguese brought Roma their second European trophy in history, the UEFA Europa Conference League, and the Italian side became the first winners of the competition. Despite this achievement, Roma are not among the Serie A title favourites.
AS Roma’s arch-rivals SS Lazio fall into the same category of teams that will eventually referee the Scudetto. Fifth last year, Lazio is certainly looking for a step up, to enter the upper echelons of the Italian championship. The last time Lazio finished in the top four was the 2014-2015 season, third place behind Juventus and AS Roma.
As for the fight to avoid relegation, in Serie A as spectacular as the one for the title (!), the candidates seem predictable: Monza, Lecce, Cremonese, Verona and Sampdoria will be fighting to survive. Monza, the team managed by Silvio Berlusconi! After narrowly missing out on promotion to Serie A at the end of the 2020-2021 season, Monza broke the ice this summer, winning their first promotion to the topflight of Italian football after 40 seasons in Serie B, an absolute record in Italy! Giovanni Stroppa, the coach who promoted Monza, was also sacked after just six games, during which time Monza only scored one point.
But Giovanni Stroppa is not the only coach to be sacked early on in Italy’s tumultuous championship. Serbian Siniša Mihajlović was the first to be sacked, on 6 September. Bologna got over their sentimentality and dismissed without much regret the coach who often ignored his health condition just to sit on the bench of the “rossoblù”. After a few days in which Luca Vigiani, Bologna’s junior coach, was interim coach, club officials have appointed Thiago Motta, last at Spezia, as head coach.
