With a 3-2 victory over Pisa, Antonio Conte’s side remains the only team in Serie A with a perfect record after the first four matches.
The extremely long Serie A weekend, which kicked off Friday night and wrapped up Monday evening with the game at the Maradona, ended with a clear and undeniable verdict: thanks to a hard-fought 3-2 win over Pisa, Napoli stands alone at the top of the table. With 12 points from 4 games, they are the only team in Italy’s top flight to have won every match so far.
Looking at the other major European leagues, Liverpool sits comfortably alone at the top of the Premier League with a 5-for-5 start, just like Real Madrid in Spain. In Germany, Bayern Munich’s 4-for-4 is barely even news anymore, while in Portugal, Porto has already gone 6-for-6. Meanwhile, the Eredivisie and Ligue 1 currently have no teams with a perfect record.
By the numbers, Napoli is among the five hottest teams in Europe right now. This both strengthens their Scudetto credentials and deepens the regret over their Champions League defeat at Manchester City — a match they essentially never got to play due to captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s early red card in the opening minutes.
The past can’t be rewritten, but the immediate future will test Conte’s men as they face their first big match of the season: a trip to San Siro to take on Milan, coached by Massimiliano Allegri, who was very close this summer to replacing Conte on the Napoli bench before Conte decided to stay.
The clash in Milan will be a key test to gauge Napoli’s solidity — especially after some shaky defending in their last two matches — as well as Milan’s ambitions. The Rossoneri have bounced back strongly after their opening-day slip against Cremonese with three straight wins.
The undisputed marquee matchup of the fourth round was the Derby della Capitale between Lazio and Roma. As expected, it wasn’t a game of dazzling football but rather one decided by key moments. Roma capitalized on a dreadful mistake by Tavares to take the lead through, predictably, Pellegrini — Lazio’s nemesis yet again. Lazio then squandered a golden chance to equalize with Dia and were ultimately denied by bad luck when Cataldi’s late effort struck the post.
Gasperini celebrated his first derby win, the most emotionally charged match of the season for both fanbases, but there’s plenty of work to do in attack. Roma has scored just three goals in four matches, the lowest tally among teams in Serie A’s top half.
What’s remarkable is how far this team has gone by making the most of those few goals. Thanks to a rock-solid defense, superb fitness levels, and a classic Gasperini-style high press that suffocates opponents and disrupts passing lanes, Roma currently sits fourth in the table. In fact, across the top six European leagues, no other team in the top ten has averaged less than one goal per game.
Napoli’s struggles against Pisa weren’t unique, though. Inter also had to fight tooth and nail to beat Sassuolo at home. Chivu’s side still looks far from its best, though young striker Esposito’s standout performance was a rare bright spot in the gloom.
To truly emerge as Napoli’s main title challenger, Inter must urgently fix its defensive problems. With an average of nearly two goals conceded per game (seven in four matches), they simply can’t compete at the highest level — especially in Serie A. In fact, Inter currently has the second-worst defense in the league, ahead of only Lecce, who sit at the very bottom of the table.
Finally, a word on Juventus. The 1-1 draw in Verona sparked fury from Tudor in his postgame comments, as he railed against the refereeing decisions that affected the match. His anger is understandable — the soft penalty awarded to Verona for their equalizer raised plenty of eyebrows — but Juventus should have managed their early lead from Conceicao far better.
Regardless of the refereeing controversies, Juve’s technical superiority over Verona was so clear that they never should have been in a position where a single VAR interpretation could cost them two points.
Once again, this weekend we provided full coverage of all Serie A matches on Soccer Made in Italy, including match reports for every game and an in-depth Post Match for the weekend’s headline clash at the Stadio Olimpico.
Soccer Made in Italy is the go-to site for Italian soccer coverage, designed for Italian-Americans who may have lost touch with their native language, as well as American fans eager to follow Serie A. All of our content is in English, but you can use your browser’s translate function to access full coverage of every team, every match, and every competition — including the Italian national team’s journey.
L’articolo Serie A: Napoli Alone at the Top After Four Rounds proviene da Soccer Made In Italy.
