Written by Matteo Ciaramella
Finally, an exciting Serie A season.
Words cannot describe my joy as our league is finally intriguing and full of drama, twists, and spectacle.
Seeing Juventus lift the trophy year after year during the 2010s has made the league boring and uncaptivating. We all knew that this reign of terror was going to end, yet we didn’t know when. And we were yearning for it.
But finally, the 2020-2021 Inter squad ended Juventus’ dominant run, as we saw them fall into mediocrity (by Juve’s standards), and drop down to 4th place, opening up endless possibilities for the 2021-2022 season. It was clear that this year was going to be as compelling as it could be, and no clear favorites emerged after the transfer window. On one side, you had a strong, young, fierce AC Milan squad that went unbeaten for the first 15 games of the 2020-2021 season and ended the campaign in 2nd, seeking vengeance on the cross-town rivals Inter who lifted the trophy that season. Speaking of the Nerazzurri, although they lost two of their best players in Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi, as well as coaching mastermind Antonio Conte, the Inter management made underrated, clever signings and brought in Hakan Calhanoglu, Denzel Dumfries, Joaquin Correa and Edin Dzeko, for a total of €17.5 million, with Simone Inzaghi as the new head coach. A downgrade on paper, but many were excited to see this new look for Inter, and no one dared to count them out for the title race. Juventus lost Cristiano Ronaldo and failed to acquire any noteworthy replacements for the Portuguese star, and only signed Manuel Loctelli to strengthen their midfield. With a team similar to the one that scrapped points to qualify for the Champions League the previous season, Juve didn’t look great. But with the return of Massimiliano Allegri as head coach – architect of their record-shredding run in the 2010s – the Turin team looked to be on par with the Milanese teams. Atalanta has seen a meteoric rise throughout the mid to late 2010s, and has become hands down one of the top teams in Italy, finishing with the same amount of points as Milan in 2021. The side is known for developing talent on their own, and working well together as a unit. They achieved greatness “the right way”: intelligent spending and good scouting. They always seem to lack the X Factor to win trophies, but one should never count them out due to their previous performances, as well as a competent roster. Last but not least, SSC Napoli. Juve’s biggest challenger in the past few years, this team came extremely close to snatching the Scudetto off the Bianconeri back in 2017-2018. Extremely dangerous thanks to their very well-rounded squad with a mix of young, driven players, and veterans who have the experience needed for critical moments in a title-winning campaign.
With all these teams, the obvious question was: who’s going to take the Scudetto home?
As it turns out, that question remains as unanswered as it was back in August.
Twists, turns, and everything in between have resulted in an exciting campaign that leaves no obvious favorite for this league title. As of April 15th, 2022, AC Milan is two points ahead of Inter who however have a game at hand. Napoli is right behind in 3rd with the same point tally as Inter, and as many games played as Milan. Finally, we have Juventus a mere 6 points off the top, which is impressive considering their abysmal start to the season. All of this with only 6 games left to play. For each one of these teams, the months of April and May will be absolutely critical. No passi falsi, or mistakes, are allowed at this point. You drop points now, you’re out of the title race, simple.
With that being said, any team in first place this year has done precisely that: drop points left and right. It started with Napoli in December, when they lost to Empli, Spezia, Atalanta, and drew against Sassuolo, allowing Inter to climb back on top. The Nerazzurri then proceeded to enter a horrendous streak of losses and draws throughout February and March, which started with a 1-2 defeat to rivals AC Milan, who are now in first place themselves, which they risk losing if they keep drawing games like they have done with Bologna and Torino in the past couple of weeks.
If there’s anything that this Serie A season has taught us, is that championships are won by beating the small teams.
This title race can be anything at this point. It’s close to impossible to predict how each one of the contenders will do on any given matchday. Their performances are all over the place, and fans are losing their minds trying to stay sane and keeping their title hopes alive. This is probably what is making this season so exciting: the unknown. The unknown never fails to intrigue us and keep us interested. Having no idea about what is going to happen a week from now is truly what makes this Serie A campaign one of the best of the 21st century. For the past 10 years, we have seen a single team dominate an entire country and win championships before the season even started. But did anyone have even the slightest idea of who was going to win this Scudetto back in August or September? Not at all. What about now, does anyone know? Absolutely not.
This is what we craved, what we longed for. After years of suffering at the hands of the evil force that was Juventus, the football Gods have heard our desperate cries, and are finally rewarding us with the compelling title race that we deserve.
Although Atalanta and Juventus are out of the picture, it now remains up to the two Milanese teams and Napoli to decide who will be getting their hands on the Scudetto in May.
May the best team win.