Italy Serie A: Milan-Lazio

It's déjà vu all over again in Italy and as you were at the top of the table with opening day wins for last season's top two Juventus and Roma yesterday and the pack are playing catch up from the get go.

If Milan, Inter or Napoli have any real title ambitions and at this stage, of course they do, they will need to keep pace early and even taking one of just three Champions League spots is going to be very tough if you are giving the rest a head start. Milan, especially, fell out of the blocks last season and also in 2012-13 when they gave Juve and Napoli a 15 and 12 point start over the first 8 games and then finished third 15 and six points respectively adrift, the title race was over before it had begun. They above all the teams need a fast start, but it might not be so easy .

We know little about Fillppo Inzaghi as a coach, they have been poor in pre season, Mario Balotelli has left this week ( good/bad ?) , Ricardo Montolivo is injured and Mattia De Sciglio and Philippe Mexes are both suspended. They signed Fernando Torres (good/bad ?) late this week, he will not feature today and with Giampaolo Pazzini having failed a test yesterday, that leaves 21yo Stephan El Shaarawy, 19 yo M'Baye Niang and 16 yo Hachim Mastour as the only recognised strikers in the squad. As talented as they might be and potential they have aplenty, SES played just 209 minutes in an injury hit last season and has not scored a Serie A goal since February 2013, Mastour has never played a single minute in "A" and Niang has averaged 39 minutes per game across 28 starts and never scored. I doubt they will strike fear into too many hardened Serie A pros at this stage of the campaign.
 

Milan : Abbiati, Agazzi, Lopez, Abate, Albertazzi, Alex, Armero, Bonera, Rami, Zaccardo, Zapata, Cristante, De Jong, Essien, Honda, Muntari, Poli, Saponara, El Shaarawy, Mastour, Menez, Niang.

Lazio : Berisha, Guerrieri, Strakosha, Braafheid, Cana, de Vrij, Novaretti, Konko, Radu, Gentiletti, Basta , Lulic, Ledesma, Gonzalez, Mauri, Parolo, Biglia, Candreva, Cataldi, Felipe Anderson , Klose, Keita, Djordjevi.