Seahorses wading to safe waters

This time nine years ago, Chievo, the minnow club from Verona, was taking the Serie A by storm in their debut season among the elite of Italian football.

Then coached by Luigi Del Neri, now in charge of Juventus, Chievo led the Serie A table for six successive weeks and eventually went on to finish an amazing fifth place, thus securing UEFA Cup qualification.

Fast forward to 2010 and history seems to be repeating itself.

This time, however, it is Cesena who are stealing the show. They currently lead the standings, level on points with Inter. Cesena is an established club but they have just returned to the top flight after 19 years in football limbo.

Before the 2010-11 campaign got underway, Cesena, better known as the Cavallucci Marini (Seahorses), were touted to be among the weakest outfits in the Serie A.

But once the season got underway, Cesena started confounding the pundits by holding on to a precious goalless draw at Roma’s Olympic Stadium before beating Milan 2-0 and Lecce 1-0 to collect seven of the first-available nine points.

Moreover, Cesena are the only team in the top flight to have kept three clean sheets so far.

Last season, Cesena were coached by Pierpaolo Bisoli. They finished second in the Serie B and won automatic promotion on the very last day, along with Lecce.

Promotion was already a big surprise as Cesena made it to the Serie A at the expense of more-quoted teams like fallen giants Torino.

In the close season, Bisoli left Cesena to fill the vacant position at his former club Cagliari following the acrimonious departure of Massimiliano Allegri to Milan.

Massimo Ficcadenti, a former Torino midfielder, took over at the Stadio Dino Manuzzi and in only his second stint in the top flight continued to build on the good work done by his predecessor.

Astonishingly, Ficcadenti’s first ever win in the Serie A came against mighty Milan at home on the second day of this season.

In his first spell in charge of a Serie A club, in season 2007/08, he was fired by Reggina after failing to achieve a single win in their first 10 fixtures.

It is normal practice for Serie A newcomers to keep their squads largely unchanged. The transfer policy of Lecce and Brescia – the other two promoted sides – was exactly the same.

However, Cesena opted for a different strategy. Apart from changing coach in summer they also signed several new players despite operating on a restricted budget, bearing in mind that this was only their 11th participation in the Serie A.

As recent as two years ago, the Seahorses were still in the doldrums of Lega Pro football.

But two successive promotions are not obtained by sheer coincidence or mere luck. Success was the fruit of careful programming.

Cesena, founded in 1940, owe their recent surge to their ambitious president Igor Campedelli, who has been at the helm since December 2007.

Only time will tell how far will Cesena go this season.

Indeed, Ficcadenti’s cards look all in place to steer the team to safe waters and, perhaps, improve on the sixth-place finish of season 1975-76 – to date Cesena’s best achievement in the Serie A.

Serie A statistics

1 goalless draw last weekend as Cagliari left Bari’s San Nicola stadium unscathed. Juventus recorded their first win of the season by thrashing Udinese 4-0. This was Juve’s first victory in Udine since February 2008 (2-1). Udinese and Juventus have last shared the spoils in March 2004 (0-0).

2nd consecutive defeat for Fiorentina who threw away an early lead to concede their first home reverse against Lazio since February 2006 (2-1). Chievo lost their 100 per cent record as they were beaten at home by Brescia. This was Brescia’s first win in Verona in eight years. Cesena continued to confound the pundits as they edged fellow newcomers Lecce 1-0 to record their second straight home win. Lecce are the only side to have lost both their opening away fixtures.

3 penalties were taken last weekend – all scored. Luca Toni scored his first goal for Genoa as he ably converted a first-half penalty and Antonio Cassano broke the deadlock for Sampdoria against Napoli from the spot. Elsewhere, Adem Ljajic gave beleaguered Fiorentina a headstart against Lazio by finding the back of the net from a penalty. Of the 12 penalties given by referees so far, two went off-target. Two players – Giuseppe Colucci (Cesena) and Gianni Munari (Lecce) – received marching orders.

4th win for Inter at the Renzo Barbera stadium since Palermo’s return to the top flight in 2004. In the last six years, the Sicilians have only managed one home success over the Nerazzurri – 3-2 on September 10, 2005.

5 teams – Inter, Cesena, Napoli, Cagliari and Bari – are undefeated. Udinese, Bologna, Roma, Palermo and Fiorentina are still in search of their first win while Chievo, Lazio, Brescia, Lecce and Udinese are yet to feature in a draw. Cesena have yet to concede a goal.

23 goals were scored on the third day: eight from the hosts and the remaining 15 from the visitors, who managed five wins. Foreign players contributed with nine goals while there were 11 first-half goals. Total number of goals scored so far is 76. Two players committed an own goal – Matteo Rubin (Bologna), in favour of Roma, and Andrea Coda (Udinese), in favour of Juventus. Samuel Eto’o (Inter) and Marco Di Vaio (Bologna) grabbed a brace each. Vincenzo Iaquinta came on as a substitute and scored Juve’s fourth goal against Udinese. Edinson Cavani (Napoli), Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria) and Eto’o top the scorers’ sheet with three goals each.