After 14 rounds of Serie A action, the top end of the table reads as follows: Inter 35 points, Juventus 33, Milan 29, Roma and Napoli 24, Fiorentina 23. There are five games left to be crowned Winter Champion, with differing schedule difficulties for each.
With 15 points available, on an arithmetic and theoretical level the discussion could also involve Roma, Napoli and Fiorentina, but it is clear that in reality it will most likely be one of Inter, Juve and Milan that are top after 19 games.
The ‘Winter Champion’ tag can be used to mock occasionally, but since 1994-95 – the first season of the three points per win era – in 19 cases out of 27 whoever was top at the end of the first half of the season went on to win the Scudetto.
So it’s a sprint between Inter, Juve and Milan. Below are the fixture lists for each team from the 15th to the 19th matchday:
Inter: Udinese (H), Lazio (a), Lecce (H), Genoa (a), Verona (H).
Juventus: Napoli (H), Genoa (a), Frosinone (a), Roma (H), Salernitana (a).
Milan: Atalanta (a), Monza (H), Salernitana (a), Sassuolo (H), Empoli (a).
Sassuolo at home might pencil in losing at least 2 points right now.
Last 4 Sassuolo trips to San Siro, Milan has collected only 1 point, scored 4 goals and gave up 10.
Berardi uses Milan to stat pad his numbers.