Defending Serie A champions Inter Milan have also been crowned this season’s winter champions, and they went into the midseason break in style by extending their impressive winning streak to seven games.
Rivals AC Milan did their best to keep pace in the title race, but Napoli and Atalanta both dropped more points as their Scudetto hopes took another big hit.
Meanwhile, Lazio capped off a historic calendar year by crashing into the crowded race for European football.
Read on below as SBOTOP lists down three of the top takeaways from the latest round of Serie A fixtures.
Dumfries adding to Inter’s playmaking depth
Inter Milan’s impressive winning streak is now up to seven games as they beat Torino at the San Siro 1-0 in their final game of the year. In-form right wing-back Denzel Dumfries scored the winning goal, his third in his last four league games.
Dumfries was brought in during the summer to replace Achraf Hakimi, who was so crucial to the Nerazzurri’s title-winning campaign. And while it has taken time for Dumfries to settle at the San Siro, he is finally starting to find his best form.
The Dutchman’s rise now adds another dangerous playmaker to Simone Inzaghi’s already deep squad full of potential matchwinners that also includes Edin Dzeko, Lautaro Martinez, Nicolo Barella, and Hakan Calhanoglu.
Inter are by far the highest scorers in the league with 49 goals, with Inzaghi installing a more free-flowing system to the one that Antonio Conte used to win the title. Prior to their narrow win against Torino, they had been simply dominating their opponents, winning their last five games by an aggregate score of 16-0.
The New Year will bring some tougher challenges for the champions, but based on the form they’ve shown in recent months, their Serie A 2021 odds of successfully defending their title are looking quite good at the moment.
Other title contenders can’t seem to keep up
Inter have built up a four-point lead at the top of the table as they’ve continued to win while their other title rivals – AC Milan, Napoli, and Atalanta – have all dropped points in recent weeks.
Milan, who lost to Napoli last time out in their crucial top-three clash, beat Empoli 4-2 thanks to a Franck Kessie brace to snap a two-game winless run. Meanwhile, Napoli stumbled to their third defeat in their last four as they were stunned 1-0 by relegation-threatened Spezia. Similarly, Atalanta drew against third-from-bottom Genoa as they’ve now dropped five points in their last two games.
Granted, Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli have had their injury issues while Atalanta were always going to regress to the mean after going 10 games unbeaten, with six wins in a row.
But still, these title challengers are not showing the type of consistency that it will likely take to dethrone Inter this season.
Milan will have the benefit of not having any European distractions next year, while both Napoli and Atalanta will still have to deal with the Europa League. But it’s becoming clear that none of them can afford to drop too many points if they want to have any realistic shot at winning the Scudetto.
Lazio climb into crowded Europa League race
While Inter are slowly breaking away from the rest of the top four, the next four teams down the table are still bunched up together pretty tight.
Juventus are currently in fifth after a 2-0 win over second-from-bottom Cagliari. It was the Bianconeri’s fourth 2-0 win in their last five games as they find ways to cope amid a rash of injuries.
Meanwhile, both Roma and Fiorentina failed to stay level with Juve on points after they were held to draws by Sampdoria and Verona, respectively.
Their stumbles allowed eighth-placed Lazio to climb just one point behind the two. Lazio beat Venezia 3-1 to cap off a historic calendar year which saw them win a club-record 24 games in 2021.
Maurizio Sarri’s men still need to find more consistency in their Serie A 2021 results; they have won back-to-back league games for the first time since their first two games of the season. And clearly, Sarri’s squad still needs more strengthening considering how much they still rely on 34-year-old Pedro to start every single match.
However, they do deserve credit for winning both games that captain and star striker Ciro Immobile has missed. It will be an uphill battle for Lazio to overcome Juventus and Roma, who have stronger squads on paper, but they do stand a fighting chance.
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