Inter Milan’s rise to the top sure to satisfy Roberto Mancini – Serie A half-time talk

Of the five major European leagues, Italy’s seems to have set up the most concentrated battle for the main honour, writes Ian Hawkey.

Roberto Mancini seems to have unfinished business at Inter Milan, according to our columnist. Antonio Calanni / AP Photo

European football correspondent Ian Hawkey takes the temperature of the Italian football league at the season’s half-way mark:

Juve fans maintain the 2006 championship, stripped from their club and awarded to Inter because Juventus were found to have unfairly influenced match officials, was theirs or it was nobody’s.

Mancini may not be too bothered about that view but it still irks him when he hears the accusation that his other two Inter titles, in 2007 and 2008, were won by ‘default’.

The argument then was that, with Juventus relegated and then rebuilding, his Inter could breeze along with an unusually low level of competition in those seasons.

The facts would indicate otherwise, but the perception lingers.

Mancini would feel great satisfaction if, in the first full season of his second spell at Inter, he can emerge on top of a Serie A, which, with two matchdays left until it reaches its halfway stage, is as tight and competitive at the summit as at any equivalent stage for 20 years.

Certainly, of the five major European leagues, Italy’s seems to have set up the most concentrated battle for the main honour.

Half-time reports from Europe’s other top leagues:

Germany: Guardiola exit at end of season leaves Bayern in suspense

France: Paris-Saint Germain take advantage of misfortunes at rival clubs

Spain: No reason for the Barcelona winning machine to stop

Inter lost on the final weekend before the winter break, 2-1 at Lazio, and even though Mancini cautioned against over-reacting to a single defeat after a sequence of three victories on the trot up until then, he said, “we have spoiled Christmas a little bit for ourselves”.

They still lead the table, but the top five in the division have concertinaed intriguingly: Inter’s advantage over Fiorentina is cut to a point.

A mere four points separate Mancini’s team from Roma, in fifth.

Roma were top for consecutive weeks two months back, but their subsequent slump left head coach Rudi Garcia’s position in real jeopardy.

In keeping with the unforecastable nature of Serie A, his team won last weekend, catapulting them right back into the jostle at the top.

At their best, Roma have the creativity and flair to become popular champions.

At their worst, they are brittle and uninspired.

As entertainers, Fiorentina take most of the plaudits.

Under a new coach, Paulo Sousa, they have scored more goals than anybody so far and trumped many other clubs in the shrewd recruitment of the Croatian striker, Nikola Kalinic from Dnipro Dniprovetsk in the summer.

They have also held top spot on a number of weekends, there for the first time in the 21st century. The aspiration is at least a top three finish, and Uefa Champions League football next year.

Under Vicenzo Montella, Sousa’s predecessor, they kept finishing fourth.

Napoli supporters, meanwhile, dream vividly of a first title since 1989, when they were inspired by an Argentine, one Diego Maradona.

Gonzalo Higuain is not Maradona, but his goals – 11 in his last 10 matches – and intelligent work inside and outside opposition penalty areas make third-placed Napoli strong contenders.

The return of Pepe Reina, the goalkeeper, from Bayern Munich, has also been a plus.

If Inter’s fortes have been their toughness in midfield, their soundness in defence, then it is because Mancini knows that is the most reliable template for success in Serie A.

What he will have spotted is that the team who have made good most often on the virtues of controlled aggression, and solid organisation at the back over the past four years have begun to rediscover those strengths after a chaotic start to the season.

Juventus, who took just five points from their opening six games, are now fourth, after a run of seven wins on the trot, and looking ominously poised to further their recent ambush on the clubs who in early October believed the champions had obligingly left open the title scrap to others.

Juve manager, Massimiliano Allegri, delighted with the progress of the diminutive forward Paul Dybala in recent weeks, now purrs at the mid-winter momentum he sees.

“I always believed the team would come together well,” he said. “Now you can see us playing for each other and getting better and better.”

Surprise of the Season (Juventus in August and September): The Serie A champions for the last four years managed just one win and lost three in the first six games of their title defence. A bigger surprise may yet follow. The comeback has been strong, perhaps strong enough to win a fifth scudetto on the trot.

Player of the Season (Gonzalo Higuain): Napoli's Argentine striker has 16 goals, six more than the next best, Nikola Kalinic, of Fiorentina and Sampdoria's Eder, in the race for Capocannoniere, the league's leading scorer. Higuain's all-round game is more refined than ever, and he has become his club's figurehead.

Flop of the Season (Edin Dzeko): The centre-forward was initially loaned to Roma from Manchester City in the summer. The deal became permanent in October, by which time he was struggling for goals. Still is: Three so far in the league, two of them penalties and, last weekend, the first red card of his career.

Stat of the Season (16 years, eight months): The age of Gianluigi Donnarumma, the AC Milan goalkeeper, when he made his first-team debut, as a starter, against Sassuolo in October. The beanpole prodigy has kept his place, against of Spanish international Diego Lopez, and pulled off some fine saves.

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