They were the Serie A ‘untouchables’ last season.
Inter Milan not only won the Italian title last term, but they romped it. Finishing 19 points clear of their nearest competitors, city rivals AC Milan, the Nerazzurri lost just two of their 38 league matches, conceded 22 goals (nine fewer than the team with the next best defensive record) and provided the league’s top scorer in Lautaro Martinez (24 goals).
They also went 28 matches unbeaten and won 10 games in a row.
World Cup winner Martinez actually scored eight goals more than his nearest rival, Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, and was joined in the top 10 of the league’ scorers by team-mates Marcus Thuram and Hakan Calhanoglu, who grabbed 13 apiece.
Inter were also held together by midfield maestro Nicolo Barella, with the vice-captain oozing class from start to finish.
The question now, then, is a simple one: who can stop them winning back-to-back titles for the first time since 2010?
It’s natural to look at AC Milan, given that they were the runners-up and have a new man at the helm. Paulo Fonseca, who guided Lille to a fourth-place finish in Ligue 1 last term, has arrived as the new head coach on a three-year contract, replacing Stefano Pioli.
He was a title winner in 2022, but the margin at the summit last term, coupled with fairly lacklustre runs in both the Champions League and domestic cups, cost him his job. So far, he has brought in Spain’s successful Euro 2024 captain, Alvaro Morata, from Atletico Madrid and centre back Strahinja Pavlović, along with young Spanish left-back Alex Jiminez.
Yet the feeling remains that the Rossoneri will need quite a bit more to close the gap and especially to match Inter, who have strengthened with the additions of Polish star Piotr Zielinski and Davide Frattesi from Sassuolo.
From Milan to the eternal city, last season’s top scorer in La Liga, Artem Dovbyk, may be one man now ready to deliver goals.
According to Serie A 2024 news, he reportedly gave up over €1 million to push through his transfer to Roma, snubbing interest from Milan and Atletico Madrid to join up with Daniele De Rossi and the new project in the Eternal City.
The 27-year-old Ukrainian striker has arrived in the Italian capital to join his new teammates in Matias Soule, Enzo Le Fee and Samuel Dahl.
A stronger Roma squad perhaps, but not one that is likely to challenge for the title following last season’s sixth spot.
And what of the teams that did so well to finish directly above them, Bologna and Europa League winners Atalanta, who defied the SBOTOP Serie A betting odds and reached the Champions League.
Well, unfortunately, their chances of a repeat have since been diminished significantly.
In the case of the former, some of the wealthier clubs came sniffing, and, after confirming his status as one of Serie A’s most exciting young coaches by guiding Bologna into Europe’s top club competition for the first time in 60 years, Thiago Motta was promptly snapped up by Juventus as Max Allegri’s successor.
There can be no underestimating Motta’s impact, for he made a ‘steady as she goes’ squad into the fifth-best team in Italy and brought the best out of players such as Scottish midfielder, Lewis Ferguson, winger Riccardo Orsolini and left-back Riccardo Calafiori, who has also been lost with Arsenal swooping last week.
As for Atalanta, no manager has done a more consistently fine job of developing a sustainable project in Serie A than Gian Piero Gasperini.
A club that has punched above its weight for almost a decade, to seal the club’s first European silverware was superb, as was reaching the Champions League and the final of the Coppa Italia.
In recent days, they have suffered misfortune on a major scale, with star striker Gianluca Scamacca injured during a friendly—he has since undergone surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee which will rule him out for six months.
The 25-year-old revitalised his career with La Dea, scoring 19 goals and providing eight assists in 44 matches last term, and will be a big miss.
It will be interesting to see how Motta fares in Turin at a club that threatened to challenge Inter last term, somehow keeping pace with them and even occupying the top spot for a moment at the start of the year before a defeat in February’s Derby d’Italia brought them crashing back to reality.
A one-point gap between them and the Nerazzurri became 20 in the space of two months.
Elsewhere, 2023 champions Napoli will hope to bounce back from their disappointing year with Antonio Conte at the helm, while Lazio also have work to do, under their new man Marco Baroni, who guided Verona to a comfortable escape from relegation last season, despite having many of his main players squad sold from underneath him in January.
My tip for the top three is: Inter Milan, Juventus and Napoli.
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