Opinion: Three takeaways from Serie A matchday 3

The international break may have halted league play for an extended period of time, but calcio is right back from where it left off.

Here are three things we learned:

Ah, the big boys are well and truly back

After the first week of the season, it seemed as though the bigger sides might be in for a rude awakening. Just two matchdays later, they seemed to have righted the ship. The top three after three rounds: Juventus, Napoli, Roma.

Sound familiar? It should: that’s the same exact order as last season, and the same three teams from two seasons ago as well.

Inter finally got their first win under Frank De Boer thanks to a Mauro Icardi double, and it’s probably no surprise to see that the Argentine is tied with fellow countrymen Gonzalo Higuain and Diego Perotti as well as Carlos Bacca on three goals for the season – a number bettered only by Andrea Belotti, Jose Callejon, and Atalanta’s Franck Kessie with four.

So, clearly, there are still some surprises three weeks in… just not in the top spots.

Clean sheets continue to be very hard to come by

Quick, without looking, guess how many teams had clean sheets in the league this week? Just two, and probably not who you’d think; it was Napoli, who put three past an anemic Palermo in Sicily, and Udinese, who stunned Vincenzo Montella’s Milan at the San Siro.

Genoa or Fiorentina may add to that tally whenever their match is rescheduled, but after three rounds, the number of goals conceded in the league varies wildly, but a whopping 35% of teams are letting in more than two goals per game. A boring defensive league, no more.

Draws just don’t exist

Nine out of the 18 teams that played this weekend scored two or more goals; it’s perhaps not terrible surprising, then, that only one match ended in a draw: Chievo’s tangle with Lazio.

Only one team scored twice and failed to win, thanks to Francesco Totti’s late penalty, which sent Sampdoria away from the Olimpico without a point.

Seventeen out of 24 goals were scored in the second half of games this season, underlining the vital importance of substitutes and defensive lapses and time ticks on, turning four games that would have ended in a stalemate into matches with a definitive winner.

What does this all mean for Roma?

Roma fits once again rather nicely into these league trends. The 3-2 win over Sampdoria allowed the team to bounce back up the table following last matchday’s stutter into the top three.

Like nearly every other side, they failed to keep a clean sheet, but no team scored more than three this weekend, and only Napoli and Juventus matched that tally. A late, decisive goal turned things at the Olimpico - as we have seen around the grounds already this term.

Serie A in these early days is certainly not a place where matches can be turned off before the final whistle.