The first round of the 2016/17 Serie A came to a close earlier this month with a few teams doing well and achieving more than what was expected from them, as others are misfiring badly in the wrong end of the table.
Atalanta and Lazio are the surprise packages of the campionato but Sassuolo, Empoli and Palermo failed to live up to expectations.
Atalanta, beaten by Lazio in their last outing 2-1, produced some scintillating performances and also obtained very positive results that catapulted them to seventh place.
If they extend their momentum into the second half of the season, they could challenge seriously for a berth in the Europa League even though they would have to contend with more quoted sides like Inter, Fiorentina and Torino.
Atalanta have 11 points more than they had at the half-way stage last season – no small feat considering they’re a feeder club and sell their best players regularly.
Marco Sportiello (Fiorentina), Mattia Caldara (Juventus) and Roberto Gagliardini (Inter) are the latest promising Atalanta players to sign for other clubs in the current winter transfer window.
Before the season got underway, few had ranked Lazio among the contenders for a top-three finish.
But as the competition progresses, Simone Inzaghi’s side are showing remarkable progress. Compared to 12 months ago, they’ve already amassed 10 points more this time around.
With 40 points and no Euro club commitments coming up, Lazio are only one behind third-placed Napoli who have three points less than what they had a year ago.
Life without Kamil Glik, Nikola Maksimovic, Bruno Peres and Ciro Immobile was always going to be difficult for Torino. But new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has adopted a more attack-minded system which earned the side six points more than they had under current Italy coach Giampiero Ventura at the end of the first round last season.
Second-placed Roma are also doing well – seven points more than the amount managed when Rudi Garcia was coach in 2016.
Juve may have lost their match to Fiorentina on Sunday but the champions are still top of the league after collecting six points more than the corresponding period from the previous campaign.
Super Cup winners Milan have improved tremendously under new coach Vincenzo Montella.
Under the ex-Sampdoria trainer, the Rossoneri have collected seven points more (and have a match in hand) than they had collected a year ago under Mihajlovic.
Milan are fifth in the standings, eight points behind Juventus.
Pioli’s influence
This time last season, Roberto Mancini’s Inter were leading the Serie A standings but a year down the line the Milan giants parted company with both Mancini and his successor Frank de Boer.
When everything seemed heading to another unproductive season, the new Chinese owners opted for Stefano Pioli as the new Inter coach and the Nerazzurri started firing on all cylinders.
Nonetheless, by the end of the first round Inter had six points less than 12 months back when Mancini was coach. They’re way off the title race but could produce a late challenge for a top-three finish.
Mid-table side Sampdoria have exactly the same number of points they had at the half-way stage last season as city neighbours Genoa registered a slight improvement of four points.
Sassuolo have found the double challenge of the Serie A and the Europa League too hot to handle.
This time a year ago, Eusebio Di Francesco’s side were building the foundations of an unprecedented sixth-place finish which earned them the right to participate in Europe for the very first time.
Apart from failing to make it past the group stages of the Europa League, Sassuolo are hovering at the wrong end of the table with 14 fewer points than a year ago.