Juventus is officially the champion of Italy.
That’s seven in a row, for those who are counting.
For Massimiliano Allegri, this is a period of astonishing success. Coupled with the Coppa Italia they won last week, that makes it four domestic doubles on the bounce for the Old Lady. Following on from the foundations laid by Antonio Conte, Juventus has become a winning machine.
No more talk of the title. Technically, the scudetto is not quite in the bag for Juventus, though it will almost assuredly head back to Turin for the seventh season in a row.
But after a few weeks of a Ross-and-Rachel style, will-they-won’t-they spluttering finale from Napoli, results have brought the title race to a close with two games left to play.
In these last few weeks of the season, however, there is still plenty to play for. The most interesting (and lucrative) prize on offer is the race for the Serie A Champions League spots.
Make no mistake, Chelsea’s Premier League title defense has been nothing short of a disaster. In fact, their season as a whole could be summed up as outrageously underwhelming on all levels. They sit in fifth place and face an extremely difficult task in trying to catch London rivals Tottenham in fourth.
Spurs are five points ahead and there are only three games left to play this season. Also, bigger foundational problems loom for Chelsea in the offseason — problems that no doubt contributed to the malaise and poor form throughout the campaign.
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How quickly can a man go from hero to villain?
For Kalidou Koulibaly, it was less than ten minutes of actual game time. After scoring the winning goal against Juventus in the dying minutes, reviving Napoli’s floundering title challenge, he was sent off in the first five minutes of the next game away to Fiorentina, squandering any resurgent hopes by setting the scene for a 3-0 thrashing by the home side.
Gianluigi Buffon is one of the greatest goalkeepers to have ever taken up gloves and played between the sticks. The Italian legend turned 40 in January and after nearly 200 appearances with the Azzurri and more than 500 with Juventus, everyone is wondering: Is Buffon retiring? It appears so. Probably. Maybe.
Last week, we asked whether Serie A has a Juventus problem. With the title race seemingly done and dusted, a seventh scudetto securely in the bag, the question was whether this record-breaking period of success was in danger of undermining the Italian game.
This was meant to be a blockbuster weekend. There was so much going on in Serie A. The Rome derby. Inter versus Atalanta. Milan versus Napoli. All the fallout from the midweek European ties. The build up to next weekend’s potential title decider in Turin.
Instead, it all kind of fizzled out. All of the most interesting fixtures ended in goalless draws, extinguishing any chance of a title race and offering us no progress in the race for the Champions League. A damp squib of a weekend, all build up and no pay off.