6. Fiorentina
Alright, before we talk about anything else, we have to praise Andrea Colpani. This guy is legitimately one of the best playmakers in European football, but I’ll bet you only the most diehard of Serie A fans have heard of him.
Colpani was a top player for Monza for a couple of seasons, delighting with his set pieces and eye for the spectacular from range, and now he’s finally off the bag in Firenze with a brace for the Viola.
The 25-year-old was the star of the show for Fiorentina in their 6-0 romping of Lecce, scoring an especially delightful volley goal into the absolute postage stamp of the top left portion of the net.
Colpani’s start to the 2024/25 Serie A season hadn’t exactly been ideal, but that display against Lecce is very much a sign of things to come for the Italian midfielder.
Meanwhile, Fiorentina are winners of three straight and undefeated in over a month, quietly climbing up to fifth. They are a more coherent squad than Roma and a more talented one than Lazio, giving them the edge to secure the final Europa League place above the two historic capital clubs.
Fiorentina are getting renaissance seasons out of David de Gea, Robin Gosens, and Moise Kean, while Dodo and Danilo Cataldi are also playing to their potentials on a side with a handful of Serie A’s most talented and underrated players, including Colpani and new striker Albert Gudmundsson.
5. AC Milan
AC Milan are holding steady in fourth with 14 points, just ahead of four clubs tied with 13. One of those clubs is perennial strong starters Udinese, though Milan were able to win 1-0 over the Friulani this weekend despite going down to 10 men early.
It’s a good thing for Milan that they scored even earlier, with top wingers Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze hooking up for the opener. Hopefully, Milan don’t lose Chukwueze this winter, because he and Noah Okafar are legitimate X-Factors to supplement, what is on paper, the strongest wing partnership in Serie A.
Pulisic, after all, is already in the Player of the Season running with five goals and three assists. But as impressive as the attacking players are, the midfield and defense remain a cut below the other top four contenders, especially historic rivals Juventus and Inter Milan.
AC Milan seem doomed for a disappointment this season under Paulo Fonseca after a thoroughly underwhelming summer in which the only real positive signings were a pair of veteran striker signings, though, in the end, it’s unclear if either Alvaro Morata or Tammy Abraham are materially considerable upgrades over the 2023/24 version of Olivier Giroud.
4. Atalanta
Atalanta beat Fiorentina head-to-head and are the kind of well-constructed and well-coached side that is capable of withstanding a multitude of severe injuries, of which they’ve already had two in Giorgio Scalvini and Gianluca Scamacca.
Mateo Retegui has definitely softened the blow of the Scamacca injury, and the 25-year-old had another big game this weekend against Venezia. Atalanta, thus, still have one of Serie A’s strongest front threes with Retegui, Charles De Ketelaere, and Ademola Lookman.
It may be bold to take La Dea over AC Milan, but I honestly trust a side coached by Gian Piero Gasperini much more than one led by Fonseca. Atalanta are more consistent from week to week, whereas Milan often go as Pulisic and Rafael Leao do.
3. Napoli
There’s no way Napoli keep this up, regardless of how much I respect Antonio Conte as a manager and how much I believe in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia as the best player in Serie A. (And with all due respect to Lautaro Martinez, I don’t have to think twice about it.).
Kvara scored again this weekend in a 1-0 win over Empoli, but it was far from a convincing performance. The reality is that Napoli don’t have anywhere near the midfield stability of defending champions Inter Milan, nor is their midfield better than even Juve’s when looking at their overall depth.
Alessandro Buongiorno has done wonders for the Napoli defense and may be the single most important player of the story of the season thus far, but it feels like the Azzurri are more lucky than good defensively with a second-best five goals allowed in Serie A.
If Napoli can come out unscathed in a gauntlet of matchups against AC Milan, Atalanta, and Inter Milan all in a row, then I will have no choice but to move the Partenopei into first.
2. Juventus
Juventus are the only undefeated team in Serie A right now, and they have remarkably allowed just one goal through eight games, maintaining their reputation as the best defensive team in Italian football despite playing much more expansively under Thiago Motta.
Although I still have Juve in second behind bitter rivals Inter Milan, I do feel like it’s essentially a toss-up, and we will have much more clarity on the 2024/25 Serie A title race in a couple of weeks after the Derby d’Italia.
Juventus still need more consistency from Dusan Vlahovic up top, because while he’s been breathtaking at times this season, his lack of decisiveness in the biggest games in concerning, particularly since Juve are so reliant on his individual quality from an attacking perspective.
Ultimately, that’s the key difference between Juventus and Inter Milan. The Nerazzurri have three legitimately great strikers in Lautaro Martinez, Marcus Thuram, and the criminally underrated Mehdi Taremi, while all the Bianconeri have is Vlahovic.
1. Inter Milan
As impressive as Juventus and Napoli’s results look in the current Serie A table, I have a hard time entertaining the notion that anyone other than Inter Milan is the best team in Italian football right now.
Inter dominated the league so thoroughly last season that they were essentially 20 points better than their two biggest rivals and main title “contenders”. At this time last year, Juve were in a “race” with Inter, and then the Nerazzurri completely tore them apart.
It says something that Thuram is Inter’s best player this season over Lautaro when Lautaro was a Ballon d’Or candidate last season and has suffered no obvious decline in performance this campaign.
That tells you Inter are loaded in the attack and comfortable with allowing anyone to shine. Inter aren’t reliant on any one part of their squad or any specific player, while they have a world-class goalkeeper, intelligent defense, and deep midfield of complementary pieces who have already proven they can win together – or even make it to a Champions League Final.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.