Serie A State Of Play As League Returns After Nearly Two Months

It’s one of the best days of the Serie A football calendar; the return from the festive break and when a set of fixtures is played on or close to the national bank holiday, La Befana, or The Epiphany, as it’s known.

This year, the excitement over the return to action for all Italian teams is heightened by the extended break due to the World Cup. Moreover, the fact that Italy once again missed out on international football’s biggest party only exacerbates the sense of longing for the club game.

It’s been nearly two months since Serie A was last in play, and if you forgot how things are, here’s a brief refresher: Napoli sit top, undefeated and eight points clear of second-placed Milan; 10 clear of Juventus and 11 of Inter. The places for the Europa League remain tight, with Roma, Atalanta and Udinese separated by just three points. Cremonese, Sampdoria and Verona are starting to cut adrift at the bottom of the table, but from Spezia in 17^th to Fiorentina in 10^th, only six points divides eight teams.

In terms of players, no one player dominated the league in those opening months quite like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, with the Georgian winger terrorising opposing full-backs game after game. Such has been his instant impact that his face is already adorning walls in the city, with Kvaratskhelia getting his own mural in the legendary Quartieri Spagnoli area. But it isn’t just him, Korean defender Kim Min-Jae joined from Fenerbahce as a replacement for Kalidou Koulibaly, and he’s barely missed a step, steadying what had been a leaky defensive set up in 2021/22.

Everyone is, of course, waiting for the customary Neapolitan fall. It happened last season as the campaign snaked its way to the end-game; it happened in 2017/18 under Maurizio Sarri, and there is a sense that many are expecting a similar mental collapse this season at some point.

Yet Napoli have games against Inter, Juve and Roma in January, win at least two of those and a case could be made that the title is already halfway to Naples by the beginning of February. Luciano Spalletti’s men are playing with little fear and are a much more incisive, fast and unpredictable team with Fabian Ruiz and Lorenzo Insigne gone.

Milan, meanwhile, have struggled to keep up with Napoli due to a mix of new signings not gelling in the way Kvaratskhelia and Min-Jae have and injuries to key players. Stefano Pioli has barely fielded his ideal starting XI this season, and expensive summer signing Charles De Ketelaere hasn’t produced anything worthy of the €35m ($37m) fee Milan spent on bringing him to Serie A. Of course, the Belgian is still young, but injuries to the likes of Rafael Leao, Ante Rebic and Theo Hernandez at various stages has meant needing De Ketelaere to perform now, as opposed to six months down the line, and this has led to the air of disappointment. Divock Origi, another summer signing, has also scarcely played.

Milan maintaining their Scudetto rests on Pioli being able to keep his best players fit, while also hoping that the expected Napoli fall off materialises.

And what about Juventus, that slumbering beast of Italian football? They are slowly starting to figure themselves out under Max Allegri. A good run of results in the run up to the World Cup saw Juve jump back into the top four, winning six in-a-row and conceding just twice in the six weeks leading into Qatar.

Furthermore, Federico Chiesa and Angel Di Maria should be back to full fitness, and with Paul Pogba’s return not far away also, Juve could look a more menacing animal in the second half of the campaign, and a title tilt certainly cannot be ruled out as it would’ve been in early October.

Inter, by contrast, have had an odd time of it. On paper, they have by far the best squad in the division and the strongest XI. They kept all of their big players from last season and brought back Romelu Lukaku, in theory making them stronger. Yet it hasn’t quite worked out like that, Lukaku has barely played for Inter, picking up two different injuries that has seen him miss 16 games this season.

Lautaro Martinez has been misfiring, going on scoring runs followed by droughts; Robin Gosens looks light years away from the rampaging left-back he was at Atalanta, and Inter’s back line has also been under performing, with Milan Skriniar, Alessandro Bastoni and Stefan De Vrij all taking turns at going through a difficult patch. All of these issues have meant Inter have been wildly inconsistent.

Roma’s progress under Jose Mourinho has been hamstrung by injuries to key men, namely Paulo Dybala and Gini Wijnaldum. Dybala has had a sizeable impact in the capital, to the extent that they don’t look the same side when the injury prone Argentine isn’t fit. Tammy Abraham endured a horrible opening to 2022/23, with no one in the league missing more big chances than the English striker. Mourinho is under pressure to get Roma into the Champions League places, but the limitations of his squad means it’s difficult to see them securing a top four finish, barring investment during January.

Lazio have been somewhat of the surprise package of the season, with Sarri’s side possessing the second best defence in Serie A, something not generally associated with the Tuscan. Lazio aren’t exactly playing Sarrisimo, but an altered version of it, and they’ve beaten Inter, Roma and Atalanta already.

The second half of the Serie A season has all the ingredients of being an all-time classic: a full six months of chaos, goals, controversy and moments of brilliance. By the end of it, we could be looking at Napoli’s first league title for 33 years. Or, if recent history is anything to go by, perhaps not.