Juventus only had three wins to show from their opening 10 Serie A matches back in October when they got beaten again by Sassuolo who exposed the champions’ frailties at such an early stage of the league campaign.
That poor start contrasted sharply with Juve’s record in the previous four years.
Antonio Conte’s Juventus won the 2012 scudetto without suffering a single defeat and in the next two seasons, the Bianconeri lost seven matches in all. Then, under Massimiliano Allegri last year, Juve only conceded three losses.
In many aspects, the pundits found Juve’s indifferent start to the 2015/16 Serie A almost inexplicable. The departure of key players Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez partly justified the side’s difficulty to repeat their feats from previous seasons.
But, at one point this season, Juve were closer to the drop zone than the top positions in the table.
They recorded their first success of the term on the fourth day – 2-0 away at Genoa.
Some started to cast doubts on Juve’s chances of a fifth straight league title, particularly after their home draw with newcomers Frosinone. That shock result was followed by a defeat to Napoli.
After the upset to Sassuolo, Juve’s agony seemed like continuing when Torino cancelled Paul Pogba’s early lead in the derby.
The Maroons held on but only until Juan Cuadrado’s stoppage-time winner which triggered Juve’s resurgence. Since then, they never looked back and started playing like true champions.
On Sunday, Allegri’s side were in a class of their own as they scored four first-half goals against a below-par Udinese for their 10th straight win that steered them to second place, two points adrift of Napoli and two ahead of misfiring Inter.
As the result amply testifies, Juve’s success in Udine came after a superb all-round display.
True, Udinese were reduced to 10 men from the 25th minute, but at that juncture Juventus were already leading 2-0.
Now, as the season progresses, the contest is swiftly taking the form of a two-horse race between Napoli and Juventus.
Inter continue to play badly and had goalkeeper Samir Handanovic to thank for the point won at Atalanta on Saturday.
Roma – Juve’s opponents next weekend – are now under the wings of Luciano Spalletti. His first match in charge was a drab 1-1 draw at home to bottom-placed Verona.
Juventus play Napoli on February 13 in what could prove to be a real league decider.
In my opinion, Juventus are still the team to beat and they have the momentum to go all the way and make it five Serie A titles in a row.
They have been outstanding since November and succeeded in recovering lost ground on all early pacesetters in the league.
Juve have a tough Champions League last-16 tie with Bayern Munich and could still be involved in the Coppa Italia if they oust 2015 beaten finalists Lazio from the quarter-finals tonight.
Napoli may have an edge at the moment but the fight for the title will go down to the wire, Allegri was quoted as saying this week.
“This league will not be decided until the last game,” he said.
“At the moment, Napoli are the favourites but none of the teams in the top five places should be excluded from the fight. It is that close this season.
“We are enjoying a good period and we seem to have got back into the reckoning,” Allegri added.