Following an entertaining week of European action for Serie A’s elite its back to the day job and another round of potentially exciting domestic action.
We begin with a relatively understated affair where Sassuolo have won three games out of three so far at home against Empoli in the top-flight, scoring exactly three goals each time. The visitors kept a clean sheet in their previous away game, against Chievo. The last time they managed to keep consecutive away clean sheets in Serie A was in February 2007.
To another newly-promoted side now where Parma are unbeaten in 17 of the 19 home games they’ve played so far against Cagliari in the top-flight (W12 D5). The away side are unbeaten in their last three league encounters (W1 D2) – the last time they went unbeaten in four top-flight games in a row was in January 2014.
High-flying Fiorentina have been trailing for just 11 minutes in this Serie A campaign – less than any other side in the competition. SPAL striker Andrea Petagna would hope to dent that impressive record and could score in back-to-back appearances for the first time since October 2016.
Over in Genoa, Sampdoria have won only four of their last 28 Serie A games against Inter (D10 L14), though three of those wins came within the most seven recent meetings.
This is Inter’s worst start to a league campaign since 2011/12 when they also had four points after the first four match-days. Currently, goal-shy Mauro Icardi has scored 10 goals against his former team, Sampdoria, which is also his favourite target in the top-flight. It could be some way to get back to his goal-scoring best.
Since their return to Serie A in 2012/13, Torino have conceded 30 goals against Napoli, more than against any other opponent. For the away side, Dries Mertens has been directly involved in nine goals in his last four league appearances against Torino (scoring six and making three assists).
Goalless Bologna have taken only one point so far in this campaign – this is their worst start to a Serie A season since 2011/12 when they also had one point after the first five rounds.
Ailing Roma may hope history repeats itself as Edin Dzeko has scored a goal in each of his three previous appearances against Bologna at the Dall’Ara.
Over in Verona, only once in their top-flight history have Chievo been winless in the first five matchdays: in 2006/07, when they were relegated to Serie B. Rodrigo de Paul has scored three of Udinese’s four Serie A goals this season – no other player’s goals have been worth more points for their side than his (4).
In the capital, Lazio have lost nine of their last 14 encounters against Genoa in (W3 D2), including five at Stadio Olimpico. Genoa are pretty poor on the road have lost their last four away games in Serie A, conceding 11 goals in this run.
AC Milan have conceded at least once in their last nine league games: their last league clean sheet was back in April, against Napoli.
Atalanta have failed to score in their last two Serie A matches: the last time went three games without a goal was in November 2015. Something will have to give.
Frosinone are yet to score in this Serie A campaign – the last top-flight team to remain goalless in the opening five games of the season were Venezia in 1998/99. Juventus have kept only one clean sheet in their last six Serie A away games – previously the Bianconeri hadn’t conceded a single goal for six away matches in a row.
