5 Reasons to Watch Serie A this Weekend

After most Italian clubs performed well in European competitions this week, Serie A is back with an exciting slate of games. Here are five story lines to watch:

Can Gattuso get Milan back on track? Or is his sacking now just a matter of time?

Milan followed up the very disappointing performance in the derby with an even more embarrassing display against Betis on Thursday. But while Gattuso’s job appears to be safe for the time being, the rumors of Donadoni potentially replacing him are intensifying which makes me wonder if it’s a job requirement that Milan can only hire one of their former players to manage the team.

Gattuso needs to turn things around quickly, but Sunday evening’s match against Sampdoria presents a few challenges. While Giampaolo’s team is considerably better at home, they currently have the best defense in Serie A with only four goals conceded in large part thanks to new keeper Audero and Danish defender Andersen who has been one of the league’s revelations after the blucerchiati decided to keep him essentially inactive for his first year in Italy.

Can Napoli actually challenge Juventus for the title?

The home draw against Genoa abruptly ended the talk of Juventus potentially wining every match in Serie A this season. And while that scenario was as extreme and preposterous as the plot of a Michael Bay film, there are still legitimate concerns that unlike last season we won’t have a real scudetto race.

So far Carlo Ancelotti is starting to make a similar impact to what we saw Allegri do at Juventus- both managers have been much more successful in European competitions than their predecessors at their clubs. Napoli performed admirably against Paris St Germain on Wednesday and Ancelotti’s willingness to rotate players frequently should minimize the possibility of the partenopei being sluggish on Sunday night.

Napoli will face a wounded Roma. The giallorossi had won four in a row before the international break but then flopped against SPAL at the Olimpico, on the bright side for Di Francesco kickoff time is set for 2045 and Dzeko has scored 54 of his 80 goals at the club during night matches.

Is any non Chievo fan rooting for Ventura to turn things around starting with the match against Cagliari?

No.

Will Lazio get revenge on Inter? Or will two of their former players inflict more pain?

Remember Vecino’s last second goal the Olimpico to give Inter the last Champions League spot? Well I’m sure Simone Inzaghi, his squad and Lazio fans all do and they will look to get revenge during the Serie A Monday night game. In addition to losing that match to Inter, Lazio also saw their best defender Stefan de Vrij join the nerazzurri on a free transfer and to add salt to the wound, Spalletti rested the Dutch international against Barcelona so he should be particularly fresh when he faces his former team. It will be interesting to see if Inter gives a breather to Ivan Perisic, who is pretty banged up, in favor of another former Laziale, Keita Balde who is looking for his first breakout moment on his new team

But back to Lazio, you consider how poor Milinkovic Savic and Luis Alberto have been this season, it’s quite remarkable that Simone Inzaghi’s squad find themselves in fourth place- a lot of the credit goes to Ciro Immobile, who continues to be as much as a sure thing when it comes to strikers in Serie A, and de Vrij’s replacement Acerbi who has played so well he earned a callup to the Azzurri.

Can Belotti finally get going?

While Immobile continues to a guarantee in Serie A, his former teammate known as Il Gallo is starting to look like a one season wonder. Belotti has some exciting complimentary players up front in Soriano and especially Iago Falque, but it remains to be seen if his partnership with Simone Zaza can actually work at the club level.

Belotti will look to start a scoring streak when Mazzarri’s squad faces Fiorentina, a team that features one of the best defenses in Serie A with only 7 goals conceded. Nikola Milenkovic is becoming one of Serie A’s most sought after defenders, left back Biraghi earned two starts in a row on the Italian national team and Pezzella and Vitor Hugo have formed a very solid partnership after Davide Astori’s tragic passing.