The new Serie A season is but three weeks old and it’s already exciting.
Six teams are tied at the top on seven points and two of the newly promoted clubs are yet to get off the mark.
Yet that only tells part of the story of a weekend in which a manager spoke of being ashamed, another became involved in an altercation with a fan and a president hinted at corruption.
There was no doubting the big match of the weekend as two giants seeking a return to the top clashed in a Saturday night showdown in Rome.
A contest which could help inform us if either Juventus – the domestic force in Italian football for a decade until last year – or AS Roma – the club from the capital which has flattered to deceive for so long – are actually ready to mount a title charge.
Assessing the Sbotop Serie A betting odds, I opted for a draw but it certainly didn’t feel that way in the opening 45 minutes.
Less than two minutes had elapsed when Dusan Vlahovic netted a sensational free-kick to give Juve the lead.
And but for VAR intervening for a Vlahovic handball, that would have been doubled when Manuel Locatelli fired in a first-time effort from 20 yards.
At half-time Roma manager Jose Mourinho told his players he was ‘ashamed’ of their showing and the words seemed to have the desired effect as, just past the halfway mark in the second half, they claimed an equaliser as Tammy Abraham nodded in an acrobatic Paulo Dybala assist from a corner to earn a point.
While Mourinho was happier, his Juve counterpart Max Allegri was left to bemoan missed opportunities to extend their advantage before they were pegged back.
Both teams will be strengthened when injured players return, of course, so for now this was a point which could prove handy for both.
As for the main talking point, just three months after Dybala walked out of the Allianz Stadium in floods of tears after saying goodbye to the fans, he returned as an opponent and was welcomed warmly by his former supporters. They applauded him when his name was announced before kick-off, booing the rest of his teammates and Mourinho.
However, it was a mix of boos and applause which greeted the Argentine international when he left the field with 13 minutes remaining.
Team-mate Abraham is now the joint third top English goalscorer in Serie A history, level with Trevor Francis on 18 goals (Gerald Hitchens scored 59 and David Platt 31).
Champions AC Milan can be content enough with their start to the season with seven points out of nine after Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud – both men who played a pivotal part in their title-clinching success last term – scored in a 2-0 win over Bologna.
Leao gave the Rossoneri a lead at the San Siro and French international Giroud marked his first start of the season, following a number of muscular issues, with an acrobatic glancing volley from a Leao ball.
That moved Milan back above their arch city rivals after last year’s runners-up, Inter Milan, came unstuck at Lazio on Friday night.
It was all about the subs at the Stadio Olimpico in a result which will have delighted home manager Maurizio Sarri.
Lazio took the lead just before half-time when a quickly taken free kick saw Sergej Milinkovic-Savic spot the run of Felipe Anderson and the Brazilian was allowed a free header.
Inter equalised when a Federico Dimarco free kick was only half cleared and Denzel Dumfries nodded it back for Lautaro Martinez to flick home from six yards.
At this point the momentum was with Inter and their returning coach Simone Inzaghi.
Yet Luis Alberto restored Lazio’s advantage with a spectacular finish, as Pedro laid it off for his fellow substitute, before the Spaniard curled a shot into the far corner to seal the points.
Monza, in their first ever season in Italian football’s top flight, are still pointless after a narrow defeat at home to Udinese.
Their president, though, was not for letting defeat go lightly and Silvio Berlusconi did not hold back criticism of the ‘scandalous’ referee or his coach Giovanni Stroppa after a third straight defeat.
However unfairly it would be, there are already reports that Stroppa could be facing the sack after losing all three games.
Berlusconi, who famously regularly used to publicly criticise the tactics of his coaches when he was in charge of Milan, has evidently not changed his general approach to the sport.
Being manager of a Berlusconi run club may well be one of the toughest in football.
The final Serie A highlights of the weekend arrived on Sunday evening and a goalless draw in Florence between Fiorentina and early leaders Napoli didn’t provide the tale.
That was provided by Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti who went to confront a Fiorentina fan who had been insulting him from the stands.
The manager, who hails from Florence and confessed he used to go to the stadium as a child to cheer on the Viola, was visibly furious after the final whistle.
The supporter tried to aim a slap at Spalletti and missed, while someone threw an empty plastic water bottle at the coach’s head.
‘Shall we talk about the rudeness of the Fiorentina fans who are behind the bench?’ Spalletti told a media outlet afterwards.
Tensions are high in Italian football on many levels.
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