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History favours Mourinho and Roma ahead of Atalanta clash
Imagine a Sunday evening in Rome, at a packed Stadio Olimpico with thousands of fans in full voice, and Jose Mourinho leads the likes of Tammy Abraham, Paulo Dybala, Nicolo Zaniolo, and co. as they walk out the tunnel. A sight for sore eyes, but so is history when it’s on your side and your manager is the Portuguese mastermind.
Unbeaten in his last two matches against Gian Piero Gasperini, Jose Mourinho will need his pair of aces firing if he’s to continue that winning streak when Atalanta visit the capital. Tammy Abraham and Paulo Dybala have undoubtedly been the spark to Mourinho’s fuse, scoring five of Roma’s eight goals, most notably during their last outing, securing a 2-1 win for the side.
This week provides a much tougher test though, Atalanta have picked up 14 points and conceded three goals so far in Serie A after six matches, their record number of points is 16 (in 2018/19) and their fewest goals conceded is five (back in 1964/65).
But what is at stake is more than just bragging rights and records, Atalanta will want to go into the international break at the summit considering top side Napoli and third-placed Milan go head-to-head this weekend.
Champions vs Contenders
AC Milan and Napoli head into Matchday 7 with no losses to their name.
Both sides have picked up four wins and two draws this season, and are only separated by goal difference, which does not matter in this case since head-to-head records is what matters most in Italy, so this weekend is as big as it gets for Stefano Pioli and Luciano Spalletti.
AC Milan have lost their last two home league games against Napoli, both with a score of 0-1, however, form and luck are on the side of I Rossoneri’s, having notched up fifteen wins and seven draws in their last twenty-two Serie A games. This is their longest unbeaten streak since a run of 27 games without defeat in January 2021.
Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Milan’s Olivier Giroud are players to look out for in this fixture.
The Best of The Rest
Sunday’s earlier fixtures sees Juventus tackle newly promoted Monza who earned their first Serie A point of the season in their last league game against Lecce. For the Old Lady, this is a must-win encounter following the controversial end to last week’s match against Salernitana which saw Milik’s added time winner disallowed and three red cards in a space of two minutes.
Defeat to Benfica didn’t do them any favours as well, but this should be a stroll given that Monza’s pedigree does not match up to Max Allegri’s side.
Udinese versus Inter is another matchup to keep a close eye on. Le Zebrette will face Inter starting the matchday above them in the table for the first time since December 2014 – the last two times in which this has happened in the Italian top-flight, the Friulians have won the match (2-1 on December 7, 2014, and 5-2 on May 19, 2013), good omen?
We will find out come Sunday.
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