Thankfully, Serie A’s winter break will become nothing more than a distant memory on Saturday as the football gets back up and running.
It’ll begin in the capital where Roma have won their last eight league home games against their opponents Torino, scoring two or more goals in each of them – Torino’s last win was back in May 2007 (1-0).
For the visiting side, five of Andrea Belotti’s seven top-flight goals for Torino this season have come away from home (included four of his last five in the competition).
Udinese have found some solidity at the back and have kept a clean sheet in their last two Serie A games. The last time they did so in three successive league games was back in March 2014. Their opponents Parma have suddenly gone goal-shy and have scored only once in their last four matches, after having found the net in each of their previous four.
Title-chasing Inter have lost seven of their last eight meetings against bogey-side Sassuolo (including each of the last four), failing to score more than once per game in the process. Sassuolo have slumped of late though and have secured only one win from their last eight matches (against Frosinone in December), drawing four and losing three.
Down at the bottom end of the table, Frosinone had gained 15 points in their other Serie A campaign at this stage, five more than they have earned this term. The signs are beginning to look ominous for the newly-promoted side.
Opponents for them are free-scoring Atalanta who have scored more goals than any other top-flight side this season (39), while no side has conceded more than Frosinone (37). This looks like it can only go one way.
A fairly even match on the face of it but Fiorentina are winless in their last six games against Sampdoria (D4 L2), with their last win against the Blucerchiati coming back in November 2015.
Sampdoria find the back of the net on a regular basis and have scored in each of their last 10 Serie A matches (20 goals). The last time they netted in more consecutive games in the same season was back in 2015-16 (11).
Struggling SPAL are winless in their last 10 matches (D5 L5). Their last home win was back in September against Atalanta.
One of the few sides with a worse record are their visitors Bologna who are winless in their last 12 league matches (D6 L6), their worst run in a single Serie A campaign since 1978-79 (19). Can either side break this run?
Cagliari and Empoli have drawn only two of their 13 Serie A meetings, the last one in March 2015 (1-1). The hosts are slow-starters and have conceded a league-high share 28% of their goals this season in the opening 15 minutes of play.
However, travelling Empoli struggle on the road and have remained winless away from home in the first half of a season for the first time since 1998-99.
To the tie of the weekend now where home side Napoli have scored 19 goals in their last six meetings in Naples against Lazio, at an average of 3.2 per game.
The visitors have eight points fewer and scored an alarming 20 goals less than they had done after 19 games in last season, while Napoli are four points and five goals worse off this term.
Champions Juventus will hope their rivals tricky fixtures play into their hands as they have never lost in 15 home Serie A matches against opponents Chievo (W11 D4), with 45 goals being scored in these games (three per game).
Chievo won their first league match of the season last time out – in their previous 16 top-flight campaigns; they’d always won at least three of their opening 19 matches. Few would back an away win though.
Randomly, Sergio Pellissier’s only hat-trick in Serie A was against Juventus away from home (April 2009). History repeating itself almost nine years on is a big ask though.
Finally, Genoa have dropped the most points from winning positions in Serie A this season (17), while no team have gained more points than AC Milan from losing positions (10). Will trends be bucked in this one?
The away side are quietly (by their standards) having a decent season and have collected six more points and scored two goals more this season than they had at this stage last term, while surprisingly, (considering their recent poor form) Genoa are two points and 10 goals better off than at this stage in 2017-18.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com