Euro Bites - Serie A: Napoli and Juventus set for two-horse race, Fiorentina back in the game and China's economic problems hit Serie A

Salvatore Avallone rounds up the weekend news from Serie A including how news of China’s economic slowdown is affecting football in Italy.

NAPOLI HOLDS ONTO LEAD WITH THE MAGNIFICENT 4

Serie A leaders Napoli beat Sampdoria 4-2 away, and showcased their unparalleled attack in the process as each of their four leaders got on the scoresheet: Gonzalo Higuain, Lorenzo Insigne, Marek Hamsik and Dries Mertens. Napoli continue to look strong in all areas, but Sunday’s victory confirmed that their forward line is currently the best in Italy. Sampdoria played their part in ensuring Napoli recorded their fifth consecutive victory in the league by committing major mistakes in defence, particularly in the first-half.

DYBALA IS ALL JUVENTUS NEED

Juventus brought up their 11th consecutive win on Sunday with a 1-0 victory against Roma. With Inter held by Carpi, it now looks like a Napoli-Juventus duel for this year’s Serie A title. It was far from the most exciting of matches, with the Bianconeri dominating and Roma focused on defence. In this moment of crisis for Roma, a draw in Turin would have been a positive result. Once again Juventus’ victory was thanks to the young star Paulo Dybala, who scored his 12th goal this season and is starting to be considered on par with Carlos Tevez, who left the club this summer after leading them to win the Serie A title twice. Roma’s new coach, Luciano Spalletti, declared that he expected more from his team. “We didn’t risk enough,” he said.

AC MILAN’S HOPES OF A TURNAROUND FADE

On Saturday evening, AC Milan and under-pressure coach Sinisa Mihajlovic hoped that they could back up last week’s victory over Fiorentina with another success against Empoli. Instead, not only did they claim just a point following a 2-2 draw, but they once again showed a limited quality of play and lack of urgency - disappointing for a team with the potential and resources of Milan. Empoli were fast and aggressive in comparison, creating opportunities to score. Afterwards, Mihajlovic expressed his regrets about the draw, saying “we were missing aggression…and also a penalty.” The coach lamented that a clear penalty was not awarded to his team when they were winning 2-1.

FIORENTINA BACK IN THE GAME

After two defeats that signalled a potential moment of crisis for Fiorentina, La Viola bounced back when they beat Torino at home Sunday afternoon. Not only did the victory give them three points, it also saw them join Inter in third place. Coach Paulo Sousa opted for a new 3-4-1-2 formation, with Babacar joining Nikola Kalinic in attack. Although this “new” Fiorentina was not as dazzling as the one that led the pack at the beginning of the season, it was enough to put them back in the running, both for Champions League qualification and possibly the Serie A title. “At the beginning we were under pressure after our losses, but then we played well and had lots of opportunities to score. I’m satisfied,” Paulo Sousa declared at the end of the match.

CRISIS FOR INTER: ONE GOAL ISN’T ENOUGH

During the first half of the season, Inter racked up enough points to top the Serie A table with multiple 1-0 victories. But after Sunday’s 1-1 draw against fledgling team Carpi, it is now certain that Inter is in a bad run of form. In the last five matches, Roberto Mancini’s men have gained only five points, and dropped to third in the table having had a four-point lead at the top. They are now six points behind leaders Napoli. Inter is in crisis not just in terms of results, but also in terms of the way they are playing with problems in defence as well as attack. On Sunday they conceded a goal in added time when Carpi were playing with 10 men and squandered numerous opportunities to score. At the end of the match, Mancini was angry with his strikers, going so far as to say that some of the chances he could have scored himself…at the age of 50.

CHINA BLOCKS ITALIAN TRANSFER MARKET

The difficulties of the Chinese economy have influenced markets globally, and the Italian transfer market is no different. At a moment when teams like Milan, Inter and Roma need cash to make new purchases, Chinese clubs seem unable to firm up on multi-million dollar offers. There have been lucrative offers from China for Roma’s Gervinho, Inter’s Fredy Guarin, and Milan’s Luiz Adriano, but as of yet nothing has made concrete. Italian teams are becoming impatient, particularly after episodes like the one recently, when Adriano flew to China to sign a contract with Jiangsu that would reportedly give Milan €15 million and returned two days later after the deal went up in smoke. Adriano was back on the field training with Milan on Thursday after his very brief holiday on the other side of the world.