The main event of the sixth week of Serie A was the clash between Juventus and Roma, the only two sides with an open streak of five victories in the five opening games. The match did meet its lofty expectations, ending 3-2 for the Bianconeri after 90 thrilling minutes. Both teams played expansive football, searching for open looks to the net and confirming themselves as the best formations in Italy by far. Juventus were awarded two penalties and Carlos Tevez buried them both, scoring his second brace in a row. Both penalties were openly contested by Giallorossi, and replays proved their doubts were right. Rudi Garcia got sent off for complaining to the referee, but his players gritted their teeth and, after the first penalty kick, they leveled the game with another shot from the spot by Francesco Totti, then took the lead thanks to Manuel Iturbe, who perfectly assisted by Gervinho. The second penalty netted by Tevez allowed Juventus to get back on level terms just moments before half-time – a result broken only by the astonishing volley of Leonardo Bonucci with four minutes left in the game. There are a lot of doubts about this goal too, because Arturo Vidal was clearly offside just in front of Lukasz Skorupski, denying him a clear look to the ball. Now Bianconeri are all alone at the top of the charts, but the tough performance by Giallorossi told us that, this year, the Scudetto race is going to be long and exciting.

In third position we can find the third different team over the last three weeks, meaning that after Juventus and Roma the fighting is fierce. Now Sampdoria is occupying that spot, being the only other undefeated team alongside with Juventus. Sinisa Mihajlovic has transmitted his defensive philosophy to Blucerchiati, with former Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano only letting in two goals in six matches, which is the equal joint-best defense of Serie A with Juventus. The latest victim was Atalanta with 22-year-old Manolo Gabbiadini finding the back of the net, following his decisive goal in the derby against Genoa prior to this latest victory.

After three weeks of drought, AC Milan returned to winning ways against Chievo. First Sulley Muntari struck with a fortuitous volley and then Keisuke Honda with a perfect free-kick which beat goalkeeper Francesco Bardi. However, the Rossoneri defense did have nervy moments, only for the away team’s lack of finishing ability not hurting Milan.

The other Milano team, Inter Milan, after being demolished by Cagliari at the San Siro last time out, were destroyed by Fiorentina on Sunday night. They fired three goals past a helpless Inter side, with Khouma el Babacar, Juan Cuadrado and Nenad Tomovic finding the back of the net. Under-fire Inter Milan boss Walter Mazzari must try and find some defensively solidity because seven goals conceded in two matches is simply unacceptable.

Napoli secured a vital three points against Torino thanks to a goal from Fabio Quagliarella and climbed to 7th in the process. Rafa Benitez seems to have put together the pieces of Azzurri defense, but they still need to fix some problems. One major issue is the goal drought of Gonzalo Higuain – the Argentine forward,  was the fourth best scorer last term with 17 goals, yet has failed to score so far this season.

In the other games, Udinese agonisingly conceded a dubious penalty to Cesena that allowed them to claim a point in injury time. There was more late drama when Verona scored to defeat Cagliari 1-0, whilst Genoa got the better of Parma. Newly promoted outfit Empoli claimed a comprehensive 3-0 win against Palermo. They have some wonderful young players in Simone Verdi, Matias Vecino and Daniele Rugani, who have been summoned by Italy coach Antonio Conte for matches against Azerbaijan and Malta.

FC Juventus and AS Roma keep marching unstopped toward the big match of next Sunday at Juventus Stadium – five victories in five games for both team, which on Saturday defeated respectively Atalanta and Verona. The Giallorossi won against one of the surprises packets of this term, the Verona side trained by Andrea Mandorlini, but they were able to break the defensive wall built by Gialloblu only in the second half, and only from the distance. In fact, the victory came thanks to two wonderful shots by Alessandro Florenzi and Mattia Destro – especially the forward hit a volley from almost halfway that surprised former Manchester United youngster Pierluigi Gollini. Destro has netted two goals in four games so far, not bad for a player who is supposed to be just a replacement for Francesco Totti.

At the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia stadium Carlos Tevez led Juventus to victory with a brace, and that means he has now scored five goals in the last three games. It seems the Apache is compensating for Fernando Llorente, who yet to find the back of the net this season. He is under pressure to score, with Spanish wonder kid Alvaro Morata scoring his first Serie A goal with a header from a lovely Roberto Pereyra cross.  The former Udinese trequartista is fitting perfectly in the 3-5-2 formation, which must be most pleasing for Massimiliano Allegri.

Now Juventus and Roma will both face tough away games in the UEFA Champions League against Atletico Madrid and Manchester City respectively. It will be a great test of character for the two most thrilling sides in Italy thus far this term.

In third place are an exciting Udinese that are under the guidance of manager Andrea Stramaccioni and Dejan

At third place we now find the amazing Udinese, who on Monday night overcame Parma. At 37, it seems that Antonio Di Natale has never felt better – he scored two more goals against Gialloblu and that means he has now four goals in five games. Despite a lot of changes during the transfer market, Bianconeri have found the perfect chemistry and, until now, they have only lost against Juventus, winning every other game.

What a stunning defeat for FC Inter – 1-4 at San Siro against Cagliari. Everything happened during the first half, with Marco Sau taking advantage of the awful Nerazzurri defence to beat Handanovic after 10 minutes of play. The fast draw by Pablo Daniel Osvaldo seemed to level the game, but then in the space of 15 minutes Albin Ekdal demolished Inter with a hat-trick – astonishing for him who had scored only five goals in Serie A so far. This was a triumph for offensive maestro Zdenek Zeman, coach of Rossoblu, but Nerazzurri defender were partner in crime for sure. Especially Nemanja Vidic seems to be a completely different player from the one who leaded Manchester United defence for years – maybe this is one of the reason why they let him go so easily.

After being defeated at home by Juventus, AC Milan came up short against Cesena with a 1-1 draw the final result. Napoli, whose boss Rafa Benitez is under increasing pressure, managed to secure a precious three points thanks to a volley from Jose Callejon.

In the other games, Sampdoria won 1-0 away to Genoa in the “Derby della Lanterna” – a tough game with few chances on both sides. In the end Fiorentina were thankful for a strike from Khouma el Babacar, who was delightfully assisted by youngster sensation Federico Bernardeschi in a 1-1 draw with Torino. It was only the club’s second goal and second point of the season after five games.  Meanwhile Lazio destroyed Palermo 4-0 away on Monday night, and the Rosaneri chairman Maurizio Zamparini (43 coaches during his 25 years in the football world) will not be happy man.

Twenty eight goals, many confirmations and one, big surprise – this is the second week of Serie A.

Once again the two favourites teams in the Scudetto race, Roma and Juventus, both played on Saturday due to their upcoming Champions League matches. Rudi Garcia decided to leave on the bench a host of attackers against Empoli, whilst Massimiliano Allegri instead faced Udinese with the best team possible. Two different decisions that ended up with the same result – victory. Thanks to another great performance by Radja Nainggolan, in fact, Roma defeated the newly-promoted team 1-0, taking advantage of an own goal by goalkeeper Luigi Sepe. The Giallorossi side played a slightly sub-par match, though, without showing the fast and lethal football we are used to. After a week of discussions, Maicon played in the starting XI and so did Manolas too – the Greek centre-back made his debut, but risked a lot with a tackle on the Georgian striker Levan Mchedlidze that could have seen a penalty awarded.

With a much better performance, Juventus gained three points against Udinese at the Juventus Stadium. Allegri played a 3-5-2 that saw former Manchester United left-back Patrice Evra start on the left flank, and the veteran didn’t disappoint, putting in a convincing display. Tevez netted his first goal of the season thanks to a perfect assist from Stephan Lichtsteiner, and then Claudio Marchisio closed the game with a strike from distance. In the final part of the game Allegri gave his first minutes with the Bianconeri side to Alvaro Morata, who arrived during the summer from Real Madrid. The Spanish youngster nearly scored a great goal on debut, but Orestis Karnezis was able to make a smart save.

Now Roma and Juventus will have to prove their strength in the Champions League too, a competition in which Italian teams have struggled to gain any success in recently. Both rosters have been reinforced during the transfer market, but the top European teams still seem a level above.

The only other side that gained two victories in a row is AC Milan, refreshed after a totally negative term. On Sunday night the Rossoneri defeated Parma in crazy game ended 5-4, with two red cards, an own goal and many mistakes from Ducali’s side. Still without Fernando Torres and Riccardo Montolivo, and with Stephan El Shaarawy suffering another injury, the team coached by Filippo Inzaghi played a pure offensive game counting on Giacomo Bonaventura and Keisuke Honda as offensive wings, and Jeremy Menez as falso nueve. The French forward delighted fans with wonderful plays and an amazing goal with his heel. With no European competition, AC Milan could surely become the third Scudetto’s claimant.

On the other side of Navigli, Inter Milan destroyed Sassuolo with an astonishing 7-0, a result that occurred during the last term too. Mauro Icardi scored a hat-trick and Dani Osvaldo netted two goals, while Simone Zaza didn’t have his best performance after the great displays in two games with the Italian national team. A comprehensive victory, however, not yet enough to draw conclusions about the Nerazzurri’s chances in the run for the title.

The big surprise of this second week happened at the San Paolo, where Napoli was defeated by Chievo – a team typically known for fighting relegation. The Azzurri crashed against a sensational performance from Francesco Bardi, who saved a penalty kick from Gonzalo Higuain. Now the job of Rafa Benitez, unstable since the elimination from Champions League, is even more at risk.

In the other games, Lazio overcame Cesena with an easy 3-0, while a disappointing Fiorentina wasn’t able to score a single goal to Genoa despite several occasions in front of Perin. Atalanta won in Cagliari, and Sampdoria defeated Torino thanks to Manolo Gabbiadini and Stefano Okaka, two forwards that must be kept under the radar. Gabbiadini, in particular has the ability to become a sensational player like legend Luca Toni, who at 37, was the Man of the Match against Palermo as he led his side to a 2-1 victory.

The Serie A season is coming to an end. While there are only five fixtures left, the title looks like it’ll end up in the hands of Juventus FC who are enjoying an eight point lead on the pursuing Roma side. Antonio Conte’s team will win a wonderful three-peat, and will also try to win the Europa League, a result that would slightly soften the blow of being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League last December.

The situation regarding the fight to avoid relegation, instead, is quite uncertain. There are five teams struggling in the lowest parts of the standings, with very few points dividing them, and making a prediction about how it’s going to end is difficult. What is not hard, instead, is to say that the amount of points needed to maintain the status of a Serie A team is going to be one of the lowest ever, maybe THE lowest ever. In fact, according to the actual pace kept by Livorno and Sassuolo, the two teams in the relegation positions, only twenty-nine points would be necessary to avoid relegation: a sum embarrassingly small. It’s probably going to increase during the next few weeks, but it’s easy to say that it will be, at most, two or three points more. Over the last few seasons, this threshold has always been higher than thirty-five points (except for the last one), so this is definitely one of the main signs of the downfall suffered by Serie A.

Since the triplete collected by Inter in 2010, no Italian team has reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League or Europa League. The state of the fighting to avoid relegation is indicative of how the whole Serie A has lost a lot of value in this past decade.

As a matter of fact, we could analyze the relegation fight in the Premier League, in La Liga and in Ligue 1 to see that the level of the competition in those leagues is much greater. Maybe only the Bundesliga has a similar situation. But really it’s the Serie A that is no longer as strong as it was before 2000, and in the first decade of 2000-2010.

Catania, Sassuolo, Livorno, Bologna and Chievo: three of those five teams will play in Serie B next year. Relegation is a tough blow for any club because it means less revenue from TV rights and less incomes from ticket sales and merchandising. In a league where the economic crisis has strongly hit even the major clubs, the loss of such important profits could even drive clubs to bankruptcy. So it’s a strange instance: avoiding relegation has never been easier in terms of points, but this is because the sides fighting for it have never been weaker. What is certain is that the three clubs that will not escape relegation are going to have a lot of regrets. Especially their chairmen.