AC Milan closed out the year of 2022 with a dramatic late win against Fiorentina at San Siro last night, but just how does the start to the current campaign compare with the title-winning season?
Milan had 35 points last season after 15 games compared to 33 this season, so there is only two points difference. In 2021-22 the Rossoneri had 11 wins at this stage compared to 10 this time, while in both they were on two losses.
Stefano Pioli’s side had amassed 33 goals scored after 15 league matches in the last campaign, while they are on 29 this time. Surprisingly, the team had conceded 18 goals at this point last season, compared to 15 this time around.
The Diavolo were in 2nd last season and are in second this time too, but perhaps most crucially they are eight points behind the leaders Napoli after 15 games this time around, while last year it was just the one.
Milan are playing well despite numerous injuries and many new young players. Napoli are just firing on all cylinders with some players who absolutely exploded this year. Napoli have faced zero adversity so far so it’ll be interested to see how they cope if/when they sustain any injuries or bad luck in games. Anyway I’d rather get hot for the last 15 matches than the first. Forza Milan!
Very good point. In the past they have wilted at the first sign of trouble. However something feels different about them this year…
This is indeed true. Napoli was also quite lucky, they don’t deserve this amount of points. They have won 2 games (vs Milan and Atalanta) which they should have statistically lost (not even draw) – the difference in xGoals in those games was more than 1 xG for Milan and Atalanta.
Also, last season was for the most part 2 horse race between Milan and Inter.
This year the competition is much stiffer. Napoli is a lot better , inter is still there, and Juventus is coming back. As bad as Juventus have been , they are only 2 points behind, and they’ve played without Pogba, Chiesa, and for many games without Vlahovic and DiMaria.
We need couple impactfuI reinforcements in January otherwise we might be in trouble
Pretty much the same as last year but better when comes to Champions League.
I personally wants to see Milan go as far as they can in Champions League and surprise people who underestimate them.
this
its not like Milan is not performing well
its Napoli doing the impossible
Napoli has faced zero adversity? Seriously, they lost Insigne, Mertens, Koulibaly. They’ve got many injuries too. The difference is their backup is on fire too, when Osimhen was injured, Raspadori and Simeone scores, now Kvara is injured, Elmas is on the roll!
“They’ve got many injuries too. ”
No they don’t. A week ago Milan have had 105 (or 115?) misses due to injuries this season in Serie A, Napoli have had 18. Eightteen! That’s roughly 10x less than Milan! Napoli has been missing less than 1,5 players per match this season. Many injuries? LOL. I call BS!
For all the moaners out there, stats don’t lie. We’re not in first only because of Napoli’s outstanding season so far. If they keep up this pace they will break the points record for a 38 game season. There is only so much Milan can do about that. Meanwhile, as someone else observed, there are a couple of other teams that are doing better than last year. Let’s see what happens in the second “half” of the season after a 6 week stop.