Italy's Serie A, Weekend Review: The Emerging Challenge From Milan

Milan became a title contender before their Sunday kickoff against Lecce, but their 4-0 win, while against a side that’s just returning to Serie A, asks us to reconsider the team Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joined. With the big Swede confirmed to move from Barcelona, Milan may now have the most talented attack in the league. With it, the Rossoneri may be ready to mount their first meaningful title challenge since 2004-05, starting with their season-opening, 4-0 romp of Lecce.

As we were reminded on Sunday, Milan still has Ronaldinho, the best creative presence in the league. Alexandre Pato had a brace, hinting the young Brazilian may be ready to fill his superstar potential. At the back, Thiago Silva is entering his second full season in Italy, one which has started with a goal. They still have Andrea Pirlo. They still have Clarence Seedorf, Massimo Ambrosini and Marco Borriello. They’ve added Kevin Prince Boateng and now they’ve added Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

They don’t have the depth of Internazionale or Juventus, and perhaps they lack the driving leadership of a Francesco Totti or Daniele de Rossi, but as this weekend’s results show, Milan may not need those things to compete. Inter doesn’t open their league season until Monday, but they lost the UEFA Super Cup to Atlético Madrid on Friday. Roma was drawn at the Stadio Olimpico by Cesena, while Juventus lost at Bari. Amongst the clubs that you could imagine winning the league, Milan has not only started strongest - they stand to get stronger.

For Roma, there is reason for optimism. The Giallorossi were superior in almost every area save one: goalkeeper. That’s a sentence that’s almost obligatory any time a team with inferior talent holds on for a nil-nil draw on the road. This time, it was former goalkeeper Francesco Antonioli that kept Roma from three points. Claudio Ranieri and squad can salve their wounds with the good news that defender Nicolas Burdisso, whose loan was key to Roma’s strong 2009-10, wrapped-up his transfer from Inter Milan for €8 million.

Juventus is a more worrying case. New faces Marco Storari, Marco Motta, Simone Pepe, Milos Krasic and Fabio Quagliarella produced one of last year’s results, losing at Bari 1-0. Perhaps that sells Bari short, with the Biancorossi showing last season that it’s never easy to beat goalkeeper Jean-Francois Gillet. But this match wasn’t about an underdog goalkeeper stealing points. The new look Juventus looked decidedly second best. As a result, new coach Luigi Del Neri has engineered the Old Lady’s first opening match loss since 1982.

Amongst the next tier of contenders, Domenico Di Carlo had a strong start to his first league campaign in Genoa, leading Sampdoria to a 2-0 victory over Lazio. Antonio Cassano broke the scoreless tie with a second half penalty kick after a strong first half from the visitors. Sampdoria added a second to post a 2-0 victory for last year’s fourth place finishers.

The season started on Saturday with Samp’s fellow tenants at the Luigi Ferraris, Genoa, traveling to a talented Udinese team hoping to avoid last year’s disappointing finish. In what was generally a dull match to open the Serie A campaign, Genoa banged home a second half goal (from Giandomenico Mesto) to get a 1-0 victory the same day they debuted the likes of Eduardo, Rafinha, Miguel Veloso and Luca Toni. Toni was removed late in the first half with an injury.

And finally, amongst the clubs that are competing for European spots, Fiorentina and Napoli - in what many thought would be the weekend’s most competitive match - played to a 1-1 draw in Florence. A controversial goal from Palermo loanee Edinson Cavani put Napoli up early, but Gaetano D’Agostino’s second half tally pulled the hosts even. Each team would finish on ten men, with Juan Vargas's straight red in the 67th minute being evened-out by Manuele Blasi’s second yellow in the 74th minute.

The weekend’s final three results: