Parma take Serie A by surprise

That champions Inter, Juventus and Milan are occupying the top three positions in the Serie A table after 13 matches is hardly surprising.

Fourth-placed Sampdoria were off to a brilliant start but their performances dipped in the last few weeks. On Sunday, Samp partially made amends for their erratic form of late by beating Chievo 2-1.

If Luigi Del Neri's side have confounded the pundits with their flying start, what can one say of fifth-placed Parma?

Parma secured promotion to the top flight last season after finishing runners-up to Bari in the Serie B.

The team's woeful performances in the opening weeks of the 2008/09 Serie B had prompted club president Tommaso Ghirardi to replace Luigi Cagni with Francesco Guidolin.

Under Guidolin, Parma wasted no time in getting their act together and eventually made sure of gaining direct promotion. In the close season, Ghirardi underlined his lofty ambitions for the club by signing Christian Panucci, Paolo Hernan Dellafiore, Christian Zaccardo, Blerim Dzemaili, Davide Lanzafame, Daniele Galloppa, Nicola Amoruso and Valeri Bojinov.

Despite having an enticing mix of youth and experience and a top coach at the helm, Parma set themselves the target of avoiding an immediate return to Serie B. This objective seemed to be well within their reach.

However, once the 2009/10 Serie A season had kicked off, Parma began to earn praise for their fluid performances and their excellent results are testimony to their sheer consistency and resilience.

The summer signings were always going to help Parma make a quantum leap in quality but few expected them to reach such dizzy heights in such a short period of time.

Normally, teams who make a number of signings go through a period of transition until the new players had settled in.

Instead, ex-Palermo mentor Guidolin has done a great job in moulding a new-look side that maintained its momentum from last season.

After Parma's 3-2 away success over Fiorentina on Saturday, club chief Pietro Leonardi urged caution, pointing to the fact that his side still needed 17 points to reach their 40-point target.

This was Parma's third win in their last four outings.

Keeping their feet firmly on the ground is a must for the three-times Coppa Italia winners if they want to extend their positive start to the season.

Guidolin is no novice when it comes to leading clubs to unprecedented heights. In the late 1990s, Guidolin transformed Vicenza from a Serie B outfit into a formidable team which, in season 1996/97, went on to lift the Coppa Italia at the expense of a more-quoted Napoli side.

In the nineties, Parma, then bolstered by the financial muscle of then club owner Calisto Tanzi, were a force to be reckoned with both in Italy and on the continent.

The honours they won during that golden period - three Coppa Italia triumphs (1991/92, 1998/99, 2001/02), two UEFA Cups (1994/95, 1998/99), the Cup Winners' Cup (1992/93), Italian Super Cup (1998/99) and the European Super Cup (1993) - represented a terrific achievement for a club which had reached new stardom after long years in the lower divisions. However, for one reason or another, the scudetto always eluded Parma.

Following Tanzi's fall from grace in 2003 Parma went through a dark patch. Their dreams of lifting their first ever scudetto soon turned into an ugly battle to avoid relegation in following seasons as the club's best players were sold to balance the books.

Eventually, Parma were relegated to the Serie B at the end of 2007/08. Parma's rise from the doldrums of the Serie B was completed last May.

The way forward for Parma is to keep a low profile, keep working hard and give their all game after game. Parma must remain focused and committed. Tough challenges still await them this season.

Parma appear to be well-equipped to remain in the upper part of the Serie A and a mid-table finish is certainly not beyond them.

Serie A statistics

1st defeat for in-form Cagliari after four straight wins as the Sardinians went down to Milan at the San Siro in a seven-goal thriller. This was Milan's fifth win - the third in a row - in their last six outings.

2 draws and two defeats represent Palermo's meagre return from their last four outings. On Sunday, Palermo could not go beyond a 1-1 home draw with rivals Catania to continue to fall further off the pace. For Catania this was their second consecutive draw after three defeats on the trot. Roma scored three times inside the first 28 minutes to inflict on Bari their second defeat on the road.

2nd successive goalless draw for Napoli as the southerners were held by a determined Lazio side. This stalemate extended Napoli's unbeaten run under Walter Mazzarri - three wins and three draws. By stark contrast, Lazio have only six draws to show from their last 11 outings.

3 wins in their last four outings have lifted newcomers Parma to fifth place. On Saturday, Francesco Guidolin's side came from a goal down to conquer Fiorentina's Artemio Franchi Stadium for the first time since April 28, 2002 (2-1). This was Fiorentina's third setback in their last five games.

3rd consecutive away win (vs Genoa 5-0, Livorno 2-0 and Bologna 3-1) for leaders Inter who were a cut above relegation-threatened Bologna. Josè Mourinho's side are undefeated since going down to Sampdoria 0-1 on the sixth day. Since then, Inter have won six and drew one match.

3 players - Maicon (Inter), Luciano (Chievo) and Marco Donadel (Fiorentina) - received marching orders. Meanwhile, four penalties were awarded by referees last weekend.

31 goals were scored on the 13th day: 16 by hosts and the remaining by the visitors, who managed three victories. Francesco Totti returned from injury with a bang as he grabbed a hat-trick in Roma's 3-1 win over Bari. Alberto Gilardino's brace was not enough to avoid a rare home defeat for Fiorentina at the hands of Parma. Marco Andreolli (Roma) committed the only own goal of the day. Three players - Nenè (Cagliari), Jorge Martinez (Catania) and Davide Lanzafame (Parma) - came on as substitutes and scored. Totti and Udinese's Antonio Di Natale are the leading scorers with nine goals each.