Matchday 9 confirmed the duel at the top between Gasperini and Conte, with Inter and Milan still in the chase. Behind them, the race for Europe is heating up. In Turin, Luciano Spalletti’s arrival promises to rewrite the Bianconeri’s narrative.
Some matchdays seem made to reaffirm hierarchies. The ninth round of Serie A did just that, painting a clear picture of the top of the table: Roma and Napoli continue to look down on everyone from above, sharing the lead with 21 points. Two different ways of winning, two parallel football philosophies, two managers — Gasperini and Conte — who have stamped their mark on their teams, with Gasperini doing so (surprisingly) in less than three months of play.
At the Olimpico, Roma tamed a brave but still too light Parma side. The 2-1 final score bore the signatures of Hermoso and Dovbyk, but above all of a team that knows how to suffer, how to adapt, and has learned to close out games with the patience of a big club. Gasperini has built a team that combines his trademark aggressiveness with a surprising tactical maturity.
In Lecce, meanwhile, Conte’s Napoli won like a ruthless, quintessential “Conte” team. A header from Anguissa decided a scrappy, complicated match in which the defending champions didn’t shine but showed what distinguishes real title contenders: the ability to win even when not everything clicks. Behind that goal was the unmistakable hand of the coach from Lecce — a Napoli that doesn’t dazzle, but feels more pragmatic, more ferocious, much like it was for large stretches of last season.
Behind the two leaders, Milan is trying to keep pace. Chivu’s Inter bounced back from their slip-up at the Maradona, thrashing Fiorentina 3-0 with a flawless performance helped by the Viola’s ongoing crisis: Calhanoglu, with a brace and commanding leadership, and Sucic’s gem put the Nerazzurri back in third, three points off the top. Milan, on the other hand, squandered another chance in Bergamo: Ricci gave them hope, Lookman froze Allegri. A draw that leaves regrets and questions about the Rossoneri’s consistency. Juric’s Atalanta, for its part, only knows how to draw: La Dea, the only unbeaten team in Serie A, has collected seven draws in nine games — if that’s not a record (a dubious one, for a team aiming at the Champions League), it’s close.
Further down, the league’s most surprising story emerges: Fàbregas’s Como, winners once again and now sitting fourth, proving that Italian football can still tell modern fairy tales — even if the club’s ownership on Lake Como is financially rock-solid, having invested €100 million in the summer market, hardly a “small club” spending spree.
And then there’s Juventus, where the future goes by the name of Luciano Spalletti. Less than twenty-four hours after signing, the former Italy coach is already set to make his debut on the Bianconeri bench tomorrow night in Cremona. His words — “If I hadn’t believed in this Juve, I wouldn’t have accepted an eight-month contract” — sound like a statement of intent.
Spalletti arrives at a delicate yet perfect moment for someone who thrives on challenges. He finds a Juve coming off a win over Udinese but still searching for direction — tactically and psychologically. Bringing the team back into the “Scudetto conversation,” as he himself said, may sound ambitious right now — but if there’s one man capable of turning doubt into conviction, it’s the same one who, in Naples, wrote one of the most beautiful chapters in recent Italian football history.
Serie A, in short, has chosen its storyline: Roma and Napoli breaking away, Milan chasing, and a Juve ready to dream again with the man who conquered the South two years ago. Now it’s time to see if he can light up the North as well.
L’articolo Roma and Napoli, the queens’ stride. Now it’s up to Spalletti to reignite Juve proviene da Soccer Made In Italy.
