Serie A update
Roma go to the top in Italy
With Juventus relegated to Serie B and AC Milan starting the season on minus eight points, Serie A could have a new champion for the first time since 2001.
The last side outside of AC Milan and Juve to win the title was Roma and both they and Inter Milan are favourites to take the title this year.
Inter are technically the holders of the title after the FIGC (the Italian Football Federation) stripped Juventus of both their 2005 and 2006 titles, but Inter have not won the title through their efforts on the field since 1989.
Both are doing well so far -- after five matches, Roma are top on 12 points and Inter lie two places and one point behind. More surprisingly, is the strong Sicilian showing this year -- Palermo and Messina currently reside in second and fourth, respectively.
Inter surprisingly stumbled in Sardinia on Sunday away at Cagliari. The home side are struggling down in thirteenth place and have yet to win, so it was surprising when they took the lead through Leonardo Colucci. Fabio Grosso equalised just before the break but the second half was desperately disappointing and this single point, added to the midweek loss in the Champions League to Bayern Munich, adds to the pressure on coach Roberto Mancini.
Roma took advantage to go top, scraping a 1-0 victory over Empoli at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to veteran striker Vincenzo Montella (still doing that airplane celebration after all these years).
Both Roma and Inter will be keeping a wary eye on the Sicilian sides around them.
Messina are still fourth despite losing 1-0 at home to Livorno -- Premiership rejects Ibrahima Bakayoko and Tomas Danilevicius combined to open the scoring and the vistors held on under huge pressure from the Sicilians.
Palermo knocked out West Ham from the Uefa Cup on Thursday and took their good form to Chievo on Sunday evening. Another fine away win for the Eagles takes them to second place above Inter and Franceso Guidolin's side must be considered real contenders. The 1-0 victory over Chievo came thanks to Eugenio Corini pouncing on a loose ball on the edge of the box and rifling past stranded goalkeeper Vincenzo Sicignano in the Chievo goal.
Despite being written off, the real threat to the title could actually come from AC Milan. The Rossonieri started the season on minus eight points thanks to their role in the Italian match fixing scandal but have already made up that ground and sit in twelfth place on three points.
However, they've found goal-scoring hard to do recently -- their 0-0 draw with Siena on Sunday afternoon at a rain-sodden San Siro was the third game in a row that Milan have failed to trouble the opposition's goal. They were unlucky in this match though -- Brazilian midfielder Kaka had a goal disallowed and only a series of brilliant saves from Austrian goalkeeper Alex Manninger kept Siena in the game.
Despite the head start that the other sides had on the Rossonieri, it would be no surprise to see the scudetto actually end up with Milan at the end of the season and leave their cross city rivals waiting another season to end their 25 year drought.
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