Perhaps there is no better advert for Italian football at the moment than a quick glance across the other four of Europe’s top five leagues. In the Premier League, Manchester City have a 16-point advantage over Manchester United, Barcelona a nine-point lead over Atletico in La Liga, while Bundesliga outfit Bayern Munich have a staggering 18 points more than RB Leipzig in second place. So too, in France there is a similar story, Paris Saint Germain already on the way to the Ligue 1 title with a 12 point advantage over Monaco.
However, the picture is entirely different in Serie A. While Juventus have won the last six consecutive Scudetti, they currently trail Napoli by just one point. Hard-fought victories for both sides last weekend continued a trend in which the pair have matched each other’s results, preserving an identical gap over the past number of weeks. Indeed, both Napoli and Juve have won their last eight domestic fixtures, begging the question of whether the title could be won or lost when they face each other on April 22.
Those who are well-versed in the history of the league could easily point to occasions where Maurizio Sarri’s side have buckled under the immense pressure from the Bianconeri winning machine, and it would only take a look back to 2015/16 to realise why. Back then Juve had endured a terrible start to the season, and it looked like Napoli were set to win their first league title since the halcyon days with Diego Maradona in the side.
The Partenopei had opened up a 12 point advantage over their rivals, but a win in the Turin derby on October 31 for Juventus saw them take an astonishing 76 points from an available 78, including a win over Napoli which would see them steal first place from Sarri’s men for the first time that season. The psychological pressure endured from a side so well-versed in the art of winning saw the Partenopei buckle, a mental weakness that has plagued them ever since.
It is easy to say that for this reason, the 2017/18 campaign will be a similar foregone conclusion, that efficiency of the Juventus machine will eventually exert their superiority in order to crush the beautiful but fatally flawed Napoli. However Sarri deserves enormous credit for not only further improving the Guardiola-esque style of play of his side, but increasing their resilience, even if they end up losing out once again in the end.
If you're going to go back to the top of the table, do it in style... 😎
Taking last weekend as an example, Max Allegri had piled the pressure on his adversary, notching up an impressive 2-0 victory over Fiorentina on Friday evening before Napoli had even kicked a ball. It was then that the Partenopei received the crushing news that talented left-back Faouzi Ghoulam – who was just about to return from a long layoff due to an ACL injury – had to undergo surgery for a fractured kneecap.
The sidelined up before kick-off all wearing the number 31 shirt in support of their unfortunate comrade, but soon found themselves 1-0 down to tough opponents Lazio. “There was a lot of tension in the first half, because Ghoulam’s injury struck all of us,” said Sarri to reporters after the match. “It was an incident that really affected morale. This morning [Vlad] Chiriches got hurt too, so it’s been a very difficult couple of days, emotionally.”
At one time they would have let this affect them, Sarri usually blaming external circumstances such as the referee among a whole host of excuses for why they went on to lose. But this Napoli seems different, more tenacious, and an equalising goal from Jose Callejon just before half-time saw them pick themselves up, dust themselves down and go on to play their signature style after the break.
That second half saw them wow the crowd at the Stadio San Paolo with a display of beautiful passing movement that they have now become accustomed to. They fired in another three goals to breeze past Lazio, but it was their determination more than their footballing genius that should be giving Juventus supporters sleepless nights.
Therefore those haven’t watched Serie A in a while, or think it is full of stale and defensive football, should tune in this season – after all – it is the last man standing in terms of Europe’s top five leagues that still has a credible race to lift the title in May.
