Great result for De Zerbi's Sassuolo as they beat an in-form Napoli 2-0 in Naples.

That too without Caputo, Berardi and Djuricic.

They messed up my accumulator. I never thought they had it in them without that trio. Incredible win for them.

mentalvortex wrote:

Great result for De Zerbi's Sassuolo as they beat an in-form Napoli 2-0 in Naples.

That too without Caputo, Berardi and Djuricic.

Annoyed this game was same time. Will catch a repeat tomorrow. 
Klaus, why would you bet against Sassuolo right now even with Rino doing so well?

Because they were playing away to one of the two most in-form teams in the league and missing Berardi, Caputo and Djuricic. :doh: Two top 10 players this Serie A season so far, and another one who at the very least has been in the top 20.

Roma also won today by 2-0 at Fiorentina.

Dare I say that Pedro has looked very good for them.

Just finished the Sassuolo - Napoli game. Although it finished 2-0 it was a game of margins. Napoli were probably more the protagonists in this game, and Sassuolo unusually defended stoutly without their main attackers - Caputo, Berardi and Djuricic. Captain for the night Locatelli was imperious marshaling the defense and keeping Napoli on the edges of the box. It was an unusual display for the team.
Napoli will consider themselves unlucky although all the VAR calls were spot on. Sassuolo’a first goal was a penalty that Locatelli converted after play was stopped for a handball about a minute earlier. Napoli then had a 90th minute equalizer ruled out for offside. And in the 95th minute, Osimhen thought he had a foul on the edge of the penalty box for shirt pulling (turned out he was the one tugging shirts), and while Napoli players were protesting Sassuolo went off and got a second.

I’ve only seen him twice now at Napoli but Osimhen seems a handful. Immensely powerful

Now you know why I have been wishlisting Osimhen for the longest time.

But seriously though 70m is insane. Way overpriced.

For all intents and purpose, that 70 million fee was an accounting exercise from what I read.

Lille had to show a certain amount of revenue from player sales to avoid FFP sanctions and Napoli helped them with that.

In reality the fee was around 45 million, as Napoli sold Lille 4 academy graduates and a backup goalie (valued at 5 million each) in return.

Lots of FFP shenanigans this summer. Uefa is asleep at the wheel, Ole-style

mentalvortex wrote:

Roma also won today by 2-0 at Fiorentina.

Dare I say that Pedro has looked very good for them.

Mkhi scored a superb hattrick today for Roma. Pedro looked good again.

Basically Serie A slow pace is far too easy for seasoned PL players. Young, Dzeko, Mkhi, Pedro etc goes there to retire and tears up the league

A day of draws in Serie a as most of the big games ended up in a stalemate.

Juventus drew against Lazio thanks to another injury time goal for Caicedo.
Most of the focus/criticism would probably be on Dybala who was dogshit and responsible for the equalizer.

Milan came back from two goals down against a very good Verona side and should have won as they had the best chances in the second half.
Ibrahimovic is going to kick himself for his penalty miss.

Inter drew against Atalanta who should have won it at the death as Muriel missed an absolute sitter.
Positives for both sides as Lautaro finally scored and looked good tonight while Miranchuk scored on his Serie A debut and looked threatening all game.

Quick edit - Ibrahimovic confirmed to the media in the post-match media that he has ceded penalty taking duties to Kessie from now on.

Speaking of Ibrahimovic:

Watching Juve- Cagliari. 2 things. Ronaldo is still beastly. Scored 2 beauties to make it 8 in 5. Morata is Spanish for Lacazette

Mkhi with another MOTM performance for Roma. Can't believe he went from not making the bench here to being one of the best players in Serie A

Ibra with the most beautiful of headers vs Napoli.

It's a shame Michelangelo isn't alive, only he could do Ibra justice

I thought Koulibaly messed up initially, but it looks like it's Mario Rui who marks Zlatan and doesn't shout to Koulibaly early enough that the run is coming.

Zlatan is just too good man.

Transformative.

Think Hauge had quite a bit more to do on that goal than Bennacer to be honest.

You could say that

It's a nice opening pass from Bennacer but Hauge still has to run forty yards and wrongfoot the fullback before he smashes it into the top corner. Top goal from a player that really excites me.

Bennacer had a top game though, full of little creative moments like that which we have no way to statistically quantify but really open the field and lead to dangerous situations. He's a big weapon for Milan. I felt that Gattuso tried to close down as much space as possible in the middle to make it more difficult for them to get the ball to Zlatan, but Bennacer is good enough technically to escape that sort of pressure.

He was really good in both directions.

Really enjoying Serie A this season. Good, technically pleasing games. Not the ball bouncing off players.

Did you see our boy Berardi earlier today, Claude? Another goal plus assist for him, after scoring twice during the international break too. In this form he's arguably second only to Ibra in the league.

Clrnc wrote:

Mkhi with another MOTM performance for Roma. Can't believe he went from not making the bench here to being one of the best players in Serie A

Thats how shit Serie A is. What a goal this weekend for him

Klaus wrote:

Did you see our boy Berardi earlier today, Claude? Another goal plus assist for him, after scoring twice during the international break too. In this form he's arguably second only to Ibra in the league.

No. I’m watching the Sassuolo game today away from the misery of the Arsenal weekend. So happy to see them in 2nd. I had a really good feeling about them going into this season. It also looks like they’ve kept 3 straight clean sheets, including that stout defensive performance vs Napoli. That there would be the big victory for de Zerbi. He’d be pulling the opposite of what Arteta has to do. Going from free flowing offense to more defensive solidity.

Klaus wrote:

You could say that

It's a nice opening pass from Bennacer but Hauge still has to run forty yards and wrongfoot the fullback before he smashes it into the top corner. Top goal from a player that really excites me.

The fullback you are talking about is Manolas actually. Utter crap player, so glad we didn't go for him. Every time I watch him he looks like Mustafi mark 2.

Inter about to play Sassuolo.

Caputo out for the Neroverdi, but Berardi and Duricic should have enough firepower.

Goodness, Chiriches with a series of Mustafisisms to hand Inter a very early lead
And this after 3 clean sheets!

Chiriches heads in a Vidal cross to make it 2-0 Inter. He's gone full Shkodran

Wow. Gagliardini with a stunning third goal. IT's over now. They haven't looked like 3-0 victors but it is what it is.

Another 2 points dropped for Juve against newly promoted Benevento. Its five draws from the first eight matches now.

They really missed Ronaldo today who has been their get out of jail card even when Juve are not playing well.

Dybala was dreadful today again. Not sure what has gone wrong with him.

Safe to say the job is too big for Pirlo

I don't think the job is too big for Pirlo at all, but it's a restructure and rebuild job rather than a smash and grab for one last scudetto, and it's going to take a little time. Appointing Pirlo was probably sensible because he is one of few people around who will probably be granted that time and patience by the fans.

Let’s see. One thing to remember is that Pirlo is trying to draft in different players and also deliberately looking to use a dieffenbachia playing style. So he does need to be given a little bit of time to let his ideas bed in.

But again, it’s 3 months in and we are sizing the man for a casket. Football is too impatient

The Milan train keeps rolling along with hard fought 2-1 win at Sampdoria.

Pioli's team may do it this season with Juventus still figuring out their play style under Pirlo and Inter being crazy as always.

I haven't seen any highlights but it looks like they did it without Ibrahimovic and Bennacer today. That's pretty impressive.

Yeah, Kjaer was out too. He has surprisingly been very good for them.

Hauge had another very impressive game after being subbed on at half time.

Looking like a bargain every match day.