Will Inter Milan and AC Milan find their swagger, or will Juventus again cruise to another Serie A title? The Old Lady went an absurd 33W-3D-2L last season, busting No. 2 AS Roma in the nose by a meager 27 points.
Yup.
Which is a shame for Roma, who had a great season. I Lupi were otherwise the class of Serie A, finishing second by seven points over Napoli and 20 over No. 4 Fiorentina. With the UEFA Champions League back on Roma’s schedule, life’s going to be tougher (Call it the Liverpool effect). Let’s see how Serie A could shake out this year.
[ RELATED: Leicester City lands Inter Milan legend | Italian, Spanish clubs bid for Chicharito ]
Relegation battlers: This could be a very interesting battle to stay in Serie A, as all three teams coming up from Serie B have good top-flight reputations. Palermo was only down for a year, Cesena for two and Empoli returning for the first time since 2008. Palermo could lose striker Abel Hernandez, which would hurt, but also monitor the plights of last season’s strugglers: Sassuolo, Chievo and Cagliari.
The title fight: Juve is still class, and now it looks like Arturo Vidal will be sticking around. So far, they’ve held onto transfer rumor veterans Paul Pogba and Carlos Tevez while picking up Alvaro Morata. So, yes, they are going to be very, very strong.
Fiorentina was strong last year before a series of crushing injuries derailed their fight for the top, while Roma has hung onto a great deal of its talent (though will have to deal with the aforementioned congested schedule). Inter got stronger with the pick-ups of Gary Medel (Cardiff), Dani Osvaldo (Southampton) and Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), all of whom should thrive in Serie A.
AC Milan should be better, swapping out Mario Balotelli for Jeremy Menez, while Napoli is poised to become a power. Lazio addd Stefan de Vrij and… well, Serie A is looking as good as it has in a long while.
Predicted order of finish (2013/14 finish)
1. Juventus
2. Fiorentina
3. Roma
4. Inter Milan
5. AC Milan
6. Napoli
7. Lazio
8. Udinese
9. Parma
10. Torino
11. Verona
12. Atalanta
13. Cagliari
14. Genoa
15. Palermo
16. Sassuolo
17. Sampdoroa
18. Cesena
19. Chievo
20. Empoli
