What We Learned From Week 6 Of The Serie A

The main event of the sixth week of Serie A was the clash between Juventus and Roma, the only two sides with an open streak of five victories in the five opening games. The match did meet its lofty expectations, ending 3-2 for the Bianconeri after 90 thrilling minutes. Both teams played expansive football, searching for open looks to the net and confirming themselves as the best formations in Italy by far. Juventus were awarded two penalties and Carlos Tevez buried them both, scoring his second brace in a row. Both penalties were openly contested by Giallorossi, and replays proved their doubts were right. Rudi Garcia got sent off for complaining to the referee, but his players gritted their teeth and, after the first penalty kick, they leveled the game with another shot from the spot by Francesco Totti, then took the lead thanks to Manuel Iturbe, who perfectly assisted by Gervinho. The second penalty netted by Tevez allowed Juventus to get back on level terms just moments before half-time – a result broken only by the astonishing volley of Leonardo Bonucci with four minutes left in the game. There are a lot of doubts about this goal too, because Arturo Vidal was clearly offside just in front of Lukasz Skorupski, denying him a clear look to the ball. Now Bianconeri are all alone at the top of the charts, but the tough performance by Giallorossi told us that, this year, the Scudetto race is going to be long and exciting.

In third position we can find the third different team over the last three weeks, meaning that after Juventus and Roma the fighting is fierce. Now Sampdoria is occupying that spot, being the only other undefeated team alongside with Juventus. Sinisa Mihajlovic has transmitted his defensive philosophy to Blucerchiati, with former Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano only letting in two goals in six matches, which is the equal joint-best defense of Serie A with Juventus. The latest victim was Atalanta with 22-year-old Manolo Gabbiadini finding the back of the net, following his decisive goal in the derby against Genoa prior to this latest victory.

After three weeks of drought, AC Milan returned to winning ways against Chievo. First Sulley Muntari struck with a fortuitous volley and then Keisuke Honda with a perfect free-kick which beat goalkeeper Francesco Bardi. However, the Rossoneri defense did have nervy moments, only for the away team’s lack of finishing ability not hurting Milan.

The other Milano team, Inter Milan, after being demolished by Cagliari at the San Siro last time out, were destroyed by Fiorentina on Sunday night. They fired three goals past a helpless Inter side, with Khouma el Babacar, Juan Cuadrado and Nenad Tomovic finding the back of the net. Under-fire Inter Milan boss Walter Mazzari must try and find some defensively solidity because seven goals conceded in two matches is simply unacceptable.

Napoli secured a vital three points against Torino thanks to a goal from Fabio Quagliarella and climbed to 7th in the process. Rafa Benitez seems to have put together the pieces of Azzurri defense, but they still need to fix some problems. One major issue is the goal drought of Gonzalo Higuain – the Argentine forward,  was the fourth best scorer last term with 17 goals, yet has failed to score so far this season.

In the other games, Udinese agonisingly conceded a dubious penalty to Cesena that allowed them to claim a point in injury time. There was more late drama when Verona scored to defeat Cagliari 1-0, whilst Genoa got the better of Parma. Newly promoted outfit Empoli claimed a comprehensive 3-0 win against Palermo. They have some wonderful young players in Simone Verdi, Matias Vecino and Daniele Rugani, who have been summoned by Italy coach Antonio Conte for matches against Azerbaijan and Malta.