The numbers alone tell a story. Following a 1-0 victory over Roma, Juventus sit seven points clear at the top of Serie A. The Bianconeri have won 25 consecutive home matches, equaling a club record, and collected 100 points in this calendar year. They have been crowned as Serie A’s ‘winter champions’ – the unofficial title given to the team that leads the table at the season’s midway stage – with two games to spare.
And yet, an even more vivid picture of their domestic domination had been painted on the pitch at J-Stadium. Roma arrived as Serie A’s second-placed team, and boasting the division’s most prolific attack. They had beaten would-be contenders Lazio and Milan in their previous two matches and been heralded in the Italian press as the true “anti-Juve”.
Such a notion was punctured within 14 minutes of kick-off. That was all the time it took for Gonzalo Higuaín to do his thing. Seizing on an awkward touch from Daniele De Rossi, the Argentinian bulldozed through, leaving his opponent on the ground before jagging past Kostas Manolas and drilling a left-footed finish into the bottom corner of the net.
It was a fine goal, showcasing the striker’s brawn but also his brain. “I knew Manolas tends to slide in these situations, and that’s what happened,” he explained afterwards. “So I moved to avoid him and at that point I knew I had little time. I was on my left foot and had to shoot immediately or my shot would have been blocked.”
Juventus’s decision to invest €90m in Higuaín this summer might never win unanimous approval. It remains an extraordinary sum to spend on a player who turned 29 this month, but he could not have done very much more to justify it over these past four months. Before this weekend he had scored winning goals against Juve’s bitter rivals Fiorentina, their neighbours Torino and last season’s runners-up (not to mention his former employers) Napoli.
Were it not for the sharp reflexes of Wojciech Szczesny, he might have added more this weekend. The goalkeeper had already done well to paw away one close-range Higuaín effort in the 10th minute, and went on to make several more stops over the course of the game.
Few others in a Roma shirt emerged with so much credit. After falling behind, the Giallorossi never truly threatened to reply. Manolas had one close-range effort blocked from a corner, while Juve’s Daniele Rugani did superbly to poke the ball away from Federico Fazio when the latter attempted to turn and shoot on the edge of the six-yard box. But Gigi Buffon barely made a save worthy of the name.
Szczesny would lament Roma’s lack of a winning mentality, saying that he and his team-mates: “need to carry ourselves more like men and less like little kids”. Others pointed to mistakes of team selection, Luciano Spalletti’s decision to start Gerson on the right-wing backfiring as the 19-year-old – a player with less than 90 minutes’ experience in Serie A under his belt – struggled to make any impact on the game.
Spalletti has been accused before now of experiencing a mental block with these opponents. This was the 22nd time that he has faced Juventus in his career as a manager, and the 18th time he has lost. His one and only win against them came in a Coppa Italia fixture 10 years ago.
Equally, though, we must acknowledge that no other Roma manager has ever tasted success at J-Stadium. Since the ground opened in 2011, Juventus have hosted the Giallorossi seven times, and won on every occasion – with an aggregate of 19-3.
That the stadium itself has been fundamental to Juventus’s domination of Italian football over the past half-decade is clear. The atmosphere generated in a packed, modern ground is one part of that picture. The ability to maximise revenue over time, and facilitate the signing of players such as Higuaín is another. There are good reasons why Roma are working towards building a new home of their own.
Szczesny, though, might have been on to something when he chose to focus his frustrations elsewhere. Because while it was true that Higuaín opened the scoring on Saturday, it was not he who prevented Roma from offering a response.
The visitors were overwhelmed instead by the work-rate and intensity of less heralded players: Mario Mandzukic – who fully justified his inclusion in the starting XI at the expense of Paulo Dybala – and Stefano Sturaro. Where the former player seemed to be at the heart of every attacking manoeuvre, the latter won possession constantly in midfield and even found space to break forward and demand saves from Szczesny twice late on.
Massimiliano Allegri was determined to highlight these truths at full-time. Asked a direct question about Higuaín, the manager replied that he would instead: “Underline again the match played by Sturaro. This club has a DNA which gets inside you, it’s easy to adapt quickly and it’s important to transmit that to all your players: the willingness to sacrifice is never missing.”
It is a core ingredient, doubtless, for a team that has its sights set firmly on a record-breaking sixth straight Serie A title. There is still a lot of this season left to go, a truth Juventus understand better than anyone following their recovery from a disastrous start last time around. Allegri pointed out that his team will still need to visit Roma later this season. Napoli, last season’s winter champions, gave a reminder of their own potential in a 5-3 win over Torino on Sunday.
Right now, though, the gap between the champions and the chasing pack looks as wide as it has ever done. “The suspicion is that it’s already over,” ran one headline in La Repubblica on Monday morning. It is not just the cold numbers that would lead them to think so.
Talking points
• Corriere dello Sport renamed him as “Diego Armando Mertens”. The editors at Gazzetta charted a similar path with “Maramertens”. Call him what you will, but just know that Dries Mertens is on fire right now. The Belgian scored three goals in nine minutes for Napoli at the weekend – becoming the first player in more than two decades to score hat-tricks in consecutive Serie A games – and then capped his performance with a delicious chip back across his own body to leave Joe Hart stranded.
It was a good day ⚽⚽⚽⚽😎 pic.twitter.com/fBceht4opX
— Dries Mertens (@dries_mertens14) December 18, 2016
Napoli’s anticipated January signing of Leonardo Pavoletti appears to be a done deal, but at this rate the Italian may have to bide his time before getting his chance to start for a team that cannot stop scoring despite its lack of a conventional centre-forward.
• Papu Gómez has worn a series of bold captain’s armbands this season – his back catalogue includes a Halloween special and a tribute to Japanese manga cartoon Captain Tsubasa (known in Italy as Holly e Benji) – but he topped them all with one featuring the original Pro Evolution Soccer’s Master League XI. Of course, you might have had a hard time seeing it amid the fog as Atalanta drew 0-0 with Milan.
• Lazio have rebounded from their derby defeat to Roma in style, and followed up last week’s win away to Sampdoria with a confident 3-1 victory at home against Fiorentina. They are up to fourth in the table, and above all continue to impress with their consistency. They have lost to the biggest teams this season – all three of Juventus, Roma and Milan – but not to anybody else.
• As if Juventus haven’t been having a good enough time on the pitch, there was positive news off it as well on Monday, as Leonardo Bonucci put pen to paper on a contract that will tie him to the club until 2021. Both Daniele Rugani and Stefano Sturaro also signed new deals last week.
• For the first time all season, Inter have gone two games without conceding a goal. Signs of life under Stefano Pioli, or just the consequence of running into a struggling Sassuolo team this weekend? The Nerazzurri hardly put in a sparkling performance, but you have to start somewhere. If they were able to get a positive result against Lazio on Wednesday – and right now that feels like a big if – the mood would be considerably brighter heading into the winter break.
• It was madness at the Marassi, as Genoa blew a 3-1 second-half lead to lose 4-3 against last-placed Palermo. They had still been in front as late as the 88th minute.
Results: Chievo 2-1 Sampdoria, Empoli 2-0 Cagliari, Genoa 3-4 Palermo, Juventus 1-0 Roma, Lazio 3-1 Fiorentina, Milan 0-0 Atalanta, Napoli 5-3 Torino, Pescara 0-3 Bologna, Sassuolo 0-1 Internazionale, Udinese 2-0 Crotone.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juventus | 17 | 22 | 42 |
| 2 | Roma | 17 | 19 | 35 |
| 3 | Napoli | 17 | 19 | 34 |
| 4 | Lazio | 17 | 14 | 34 |
| 5 | AC Milan | 17 | 7 | 33 |
| 6 | Atalanta | 17 | 5 | 29 |
| 7 | Inter Milan | 17 | 4 | 27 |
| 8 | Fiorentina | 17 | 4 | 26 |
| 9 | Torino | 17 | 8 | 25 |
| 10 | Chievo | 17 | 1 | 25 |
| 11 | Udinese | 17 | 0 | 24 |
| 12 | Genoa | 17 | 0 | 23 |
| 13 | Sampdoria | 17 | -3 | 22 |
| 14 | Bologna | 17 | -5 | 20 |
| 15 | Cagliari | 17 | -16 | 20 |
| 16 | Sassuolo | 17 | -8 | 17 |
| 17 | Empoli | 17 | -15 | 14 |
| 18 | Crotone | 17 | -18 | 9 |
| 19 | Palermo | 17 | -19 | 9 |
| 20 | Pescara | 17 | -19 | 8 |
