By the end of Tuesday, the summit of Serie A could look a bit like it always used to.
Win at Genoa and AC Milan will look down on all rest, much as they were in habit of doing through the late 1980s and 1990s.
Not many in the current squad know what that feels like. Such has been the decline of a great footballing institution in the last decade, that there is a danger of vertigo.
Milan were briefly at the head of the top-flight of Italian football in the first two weeks of the 2014-15 season, but they have not ruled the roost in any significant way since March 2012, when, as defending champions, they relinquished top spot and, unknowingly, gave way to a Juventus cultivating dynastic ambitions.
Those were the days when Milan still employed famous names, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Robinho, albeit that they had a tendency to short-termism, for taking on players past their peaks or with reputations for difficult behaviour: Kevin-Prince Boateng was there then, so was Antonio Cassano; Mario Balotelli arrived, left, came back again and wandered off for second time.
The Milan who on Saturday achieved a significant 1-0 win over Juve, teeing up the chance tonight to overtake the serial scudetto holders at the top of the table – even if it could be for only for 24 hours – are cut from a very different cloth.
For there are grounds to believe the current momentum should not run short of gas. This is no longer a club of veterans, but with the energetic vim of youth.
The goal that inflicted on Juventus, champions for all five seasons since Milan won their last title in 2011, their second defeat of the current campaign came from Manuel Locatelli, who is 18 and has been imposing himself on the midfield with an upstart bumptiousness that found its stunning expression in the long-rage strike he pumped past Juve’s goalkeeper Gigi Buffon on Saturday.
The contest was tight, the result secured by more than one five save from Milan goalkeeper Gigi Donnarumma, who is 17 and barely a year into his senior career.
“Locatelli and Donnarumma are doing things that, given their ages, are incredible,” said Vicenzo Montella, the fifth different coach to take charge of Milan since Max Allegri, now at Juventus, guided the club to their last scudetto.
Other younger men are also thriving. M’Baye Niang, 21, the French striker, who has been on Milan’s books since he was 17 but has been involved in a series of off-filed controversies, seems to have added maturity and consistency to his speedy skill-set.
Suso, 22, once considered a prodigy in his native Spain, looks like that again, after a period at Liverpool where he struggled to make an impact in attacking midfield.
Montella is anxious these tyros do not get carried away with a start of a season that has surprised most San Siro sceptics.
“History is full of teams who achieved some good early results and then fell away,” the coach added.
To illustrate the point, he need only glance across town. Inter Milan are in full crisis going into this midweek round of fixtures, after they lost 2-1 at Atalanta on Sunday.
Frank de Boer, Inter’s beleaguered coach, gloomily refused to guarantee his stint in charge, which began only in July, will last beyond Wednesday’s fixture against Torino.
Inter are marooned at 14th in the table - this at a club who began 2016 top of Serie A, until they were reeled in by Juventus, as were Napoli.
Poor de Boer. Just over a month ago, he was feeling like Montella does this morning, having overseen an Inter victory over Juve.
Since then, Inter have won just once in the league, and lost their last three.
There is little sympathy for their plight from the resurgent, red part of the city.
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