“It’s Great That We're Dreaming Of The Scudetto, It’s A Source Of Great Pride And Satisfaction For The Fans”

Written By Onyeka Daniel

With just 11 matches played so far in the 2025-26 Serie A, the indications are there that we might have a much more open title race between more than just two teams, unlike the previous ones when it’s usually just two teams that end up fighting for the Scudetto.

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Although, the season is not even close to the half way line, but with January fast approaching, the title contenders are already starting to appear while the results are also starting to get a little harder to achieve as we saw over the weekend with a late of draws across various venues.

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while the likes of Napoli and AC Milan faltered, it allowed Roma to go forward a claim a place at the top of the table as we head into this month’s international break after the Giallorossi secured a 2-0 win over Udinese at the Stadio Olimpico to go two points clear.

Consequently, their manager, Gian Piero Gasperini believes that it is only right for their fans to start dreaming of the Scudetto. The Giallorossi were barely able to rotate the squad after Thursday’s 2-0 Europa League victory away to Glasgow Rangers, but there were few signs of fatigue.

Plus they did enough to secure the maximum points as Lorenzo Pellegrini converted a penalty and Zeki Celik scored the second for the win. Artem Dovbyk went off with a hip issue just before half-time, joining Paulo Dybala, Evan Ferguson, Leon Bailey and Angelino on the absentee list.

This leaves the team with no centre-forwards at all but with two weeks break before their next game, there is optimism. “It’s great that fans are dreaming of the Scudetto. We’ve got to the international break in first place in the standings, it’s a source of great pride and satisfaction for the fans.” Gasperini told DAZN after full-time.

“We’ll see about percentages and probabilities later.” And on the victory over Udinese specifically, Gasperini said: “They did very well against a difficult opponent. We faced them with a lot of determination and kept the pace very high. They looked to play aerially a lot, but slowly, we started to dominate the game.”

“A bit of fatigue took over in the final minutes, but I was very pleased with the match considering the level of difficulty.” There was a goal from the penalty spot for former captain Lorenzo Pellegrini against Udinese. He has been one of the main beneficiaries since the injury to Dybala.

“He’s a good player. He’s healthy and he’s mature. Football wise, he’s a strong player. We had to give him back the trust that he deserved. He’s doing fine physically now, and we are happy for him, but also for ourselves because we benefit from him.” And will Pellegrini still be the penalty taker once Dybala returns?

“Whoever scores (gets to take them). Scoring penalties is a rare thing for us. Pellegrini takes them very well, but Dybala also had a good record before Milan.” And on the injured striker, Dovbyk, Gasperini said: “We’ll see tomorrow. It doesn’t seem great.”

“Fortunately we have the break before our next game, but these are injuries that maybe take you two to three weeks and maybe five to six games. We have a lot of absences in the same area of the pitch, but we’ve managed to make up for it well so far.”

“We hope to get as many players back as possible during the break.” He further added. In a related development, it is increasingly likely that Ivan Juric will be fired by Atalanta, with Raffaele Palladino confirmed as the hot favourite to take over if that happens.

It had already been evident that La Dea were running out of patience with the coach after a run of dismal Serie A results, as five consecutive stalemates were followed by back-to-back defeats against Udinese and Sassuolo and the 3-0 home loss to the Neroverdi was the final straw.

Especially as it left them behind the newly-promoted Sassuolo in the table. With the break for international duty, Atalanta are ready to pull the plug on this brief Juric tenure, as he had only taken over in the summer. He has overseen four victories, eight draws and three defeats in all competition.

Juric was only chosen because he was one of the proteges of their former coach, Gasperini, so this is also influencing their decision going forward. Another reason Palladino is preferred is that his assistant manager Federico Peluso is a former Atalanta player.

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Palladino and Thiago Motta are in the same bracket, but former Fiorentina and Monza boss Palladino has always been the top choice as the 41-year-old left Fiorentina by mutual consent over the summer, after just one season at the Stadio Artemio Franchi and has been without a club since then.

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