Inter overwhelms Sassuolo and confirms its excessive power in Italy. Which is not yet worth the announcement of the championship, but it gives some answers to the many initial doubts about Chivu.
There is a steamroller wandering around the Italian championship and he can’t say he has already closed it just because the opponents, behind him, are doing everything to keep it open. The walk in Reggio Emilia against Sassuolo is at least as impressive as the scout’s reading of Chivu’s team from the day of the defeat in the derby of many regrets. It was last November 23rd. Since then the Nerazzurri have made an almost complete run because only Conte’s Napoli was able to emerge from the clash with the league leaders by taking home a small point; in the other 11 games of the series there was no story.
They score 34 points out of 36 won, a pace that would have killed even a bull and which instead Allegri’s Milan is holding up, albeit with difficulty, waiting for better times. By broadening the view slightly, the picture is even more impressive because it tells of a team that since 25 October, the day of the knockout in Naples amidst a thousand refereeing controversies, has practically always won or almost always: 14 times out of 16.
Numbers don’t say everything in football but they help to understand. The first thing they point out is how Chivu has taken control of the situation to the point of forgetting his status as a rookie on a Serie A bench: the Italian derby on Valentine’s night will be his 38th personal one in the top division, as if he had completed his first season. Does anyone remember this?
Second consideration: barring future collapses in condition, which are not yet visible, Inter have depth and physical strength that in Italy make them at times indigestible for the opponent in question, whatever their consistency. Third: Milan and Napoli, now that they only have one match a week, must continue to believe in the possibility of playing for the scudetto all the way because what awaits the Nerazzurri between now and the end of March (we’ll see later) is an enormous effort that can affect the balance in an instant. However, while Allegri seems to govern Milan’s seasonal moment without worries, Napoli is hanging by a very thin thread.
The Italian Derby on Valentine’s Day will be a further test. It comes at the end of Chivu’s only slow week, and it’s an advantage, but before the start of the Champions League play-off with Bodo Glimt. And he tries to erase the last taboo which is represented by suffering in clashes with the big teams; if it overrides this too, it’s difficult to find fault. Otherwise…
