The new Serie A season starts today with Simone Inzaghi’s Inter as the bookies favourite ahead of last season’s Scudetto winners Napoli.
Last year saw a resurgence from Italian teams in Europe but it ended in tears with Inter losing in the Champions League final against Manchester City, Roma were beaten by Seville on penalties and West Ham broke Fiorentina’s hearts with a last minute winner in the Conference League.
All Change!
It was only a few years ago that you knew that Juventus were going to win the league but the last three winners have been Napoli, Milan and Inter.
Under Luciano Spalletti, Napoli ended their 33-year wait to win the Scudetto – they came close under Lazio’s Maurizio Sarri but finally the new Italian national coach ended Partenopei’s pain!
Having won the title Spalletti decided to take a career break only to accept the the role of national team coach on Friday.
His replacement is Rudi Garcia who arrives from a spell in Saudi Arabia with Al Nassr. He previously managed Roma where he did lead them to second behind Juventus but it does not seem the most inspiring of appointments.
We see the return of Genoa and Cagliari who spent one season in Serie B and Frosinone also came up after finishing second.
This year Serie A follow LaLiga by expanding their Supercoppa format to four teams with Napoli, Lazio, Inter and Fiorentina all heading to Saudi Arabia to compete for the trophy.
The Competition
Going into the competition last season nobody expected Napoli to challenge for the title or even to make it into the top four. Yet – they had an incredible season, reaching the semi-final of the Champions League and playing some excellent football!
The pressure is on Milan duo with Inzaghi and Stefano Pioli both desperate to get their hands on the title and they will need to start the season well.
Milan have had a good summer transfer mercato despite losing Sandro Tonali to Newcastle. They have brought in Yunus Masah from Valencia and Samuel Chukwueze from Villarreal to strengthen their right side.
They have also signed Christian Pulisic and and Ruben Loftus-Cheek from Chelsea as well as exciting Argentine youngster Luka Romero joining on a free transfer after his contract with Lazio expired.
Juventus are in the process of rebuilding and have been trying to sign Romelu Lukaku but so far the deal has not been completed so they will start with Dušan Vlahović as their main striker.
With no European football this season after being removed from the Conference League they should be able to focus on Serie A and trying to win their first title since the 2019/20 season.
Last season there were mixed emotions for the two clubs from the capital with Lazio surprising everyone by finishing second but struggling in Europe.
While Jose Mourinho’s Roma finished sixth again but did get to the Europa League final only to lose on penalties. Most, if not all, Romanisti felt they were robbed by Anthony Taylor.
Let’s now forget that this could be Mourinho’s last season as he is now in the last year of his contract.
Down at the bottom
New boys Frosinone are favourites to go down – they were last in Serie A in 2018/19 when they finished the season with just five wins.
Even though Fabio Grosso got the Canarini promoted his contract was not renewed and ex-Sassuolo and Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco is now in charge.
Lecce and Verona are both expected to have difficult seasons again with returnees Cagliari and Genoa expected to face a relegation battle.
Guys with goals
Last season Victor Osimhen finished the season as the Capocannoniere (league’s top scorer) with 26 goals – on occasions last season the 23-year-old Nigerian star was unplayable.
Unsurprisingly he is the favourite to win the award again this season.
Then it is Inter’s Lautaro Martinez who despite having a slightly disappointing league season still scored 21 times last season.
Lazio’s four-time winner Ciro Immobile is third favourite – last season even though his team had a good season he campaign was hindered with injuries and he only scored 12 times in the league.
My predictions
I feel that Milan in their first season without Zlatan Ibrahimović will win the Scudetto ahead of city rivals Inter who will finish second.
Juventus will return to the top four and are likely to contend for the title but I expect them to finish 3rd with Roma or Lazio grabbing the last Champions League place.
If Immobile has a good season then Lazio should finish in the top four even though Sergej Milinković-Savić has gone to Saudi Arabia.
Sadly I think Frosinone will go straight back down and this season I can see Hellas Verona and Lecce joining them in the bottom three.
It should be noted that Opta has Inter winning the the league with Napoli as runners-up then Milan in third and Juventus as fourth.
They have Cagliari, Genoa and Lecce going down with the Sardinians finishing bottom.
