With another fixture list coming so hot on the heels of the last one it is becoming hard to remember there was ever a Christmas break in Serie A. So, on to the next one…
We begin with a home side in desperate need of points. There have been six goals scored in each of the last two Serie A meetings between hosts Frosinone and AC Milan; the Rossoneri are unbeaten against the Ciociari in the competition (W1 D1).
Visitors Milan have won only one of their last seven away league games against newly promoted teams (D4 L2): 4-0 against SPAL in February. That was also the only occasion in which the Rossoneri kept a clean sheet in this run.
Atalanta have lost 64 top-flight games against Juventus, more than against any other side (including 23 of the last 27 top-flight clashes – D4). Champions Juventus are unbeaten in 27 league matches against Atalanta (W23 D4) – only Inter against Sampdoria (30 between 1961 and 1977) have gone longer without defeat against a single opponent.
The first official managerial meeting between the brothers Simone and Filippo Inzaghi will take place this December 26 – the two have already faced in seven Serie A games as players with the current Bologna coach winning three times (D3 L1).
The last two Bologna home league games have ended goalless (against Fiorentina and Milan) – the struggling Rossoblu have not recorded three home games in a row without conceding a goal since February 2012. Lazio have won seven of their last eight away games in Emilia, drawing in the most recent one: 1-1 against Sassuolo in November.
Cagliari have won three of their last five top-flight home games against Genoa (D1 L1), keeping a clean sheet only once. Fellow strugglers Genoa have conceded in all of their away Serie A games this season: 23 goals, an average of 2.9 per game.
Perhaps the deciding factor may be the strikers. Only Lionel Messi (15) has scored more goals than Krzysztof Piatek (13) in the top-5 European Leagues in this season.
Fiorentina are unbeaten in 11 of their last 12 meetings against Parma (W4 D6), losing 0-1 in January 2015 at the Tardini. Surprisingly, Parma have played four games in the league this season without having a single shot on target.
Two sides in improving form meet next, the first being Sampdoria who are unbeaten in their last five matches (W3 D2) and for the first time since February: the last time they went six in a row without a defeat came back in March 2017.
Struggling Chievo are improving slightly and are unbeaten in under current manager Domenico Di Carlo with five consecutive draws.
From two in-form sides to two free-falling ones. SPAL haven’t won a top-flight encounter since October when beating Roma – since then, SPAL have recorded four draws and four defeats. Their opponents Udinese have only won one of their last 12 matches (D3 L8), conceding at least two goals in seven of these games.
Another side struggling for consistency are Roma who have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last nine Serie A games, the last time they went on a longer run without a shutout in the competition was in February 2013 (10 successive games).
In the 2018/19 campaign, visitors Sassuolo have lost only two points from leading positions (a joint record) and they have earned 10 from trailing positions.
Inconsistent Torino have never repeated the same result in their last 12 home games in the league (W5 D2 L5) – losing 0-1 in their most recent game against Juventus. You can be almost guaranteed goals with the away side. In all of Empoli’s last nine meetings, both teams have always found the back of the net: 40 goals in total, 4.4 in average per game.
The final and stand-out fixture of the gameweek sees the two most likely title chasers in action. Inter have won only one of their last 11 top-flight encounters against Napoli, recording five draws and five losses in this run. Napoli have earned 41 points after 17 matchdays in the current Serie A season, in the three points per win era, only in 2017/18 have they had more after 17 games (42).
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com