JUVENTUS

League position: 5th
Head coach: Massimiliano Allegri
Serie A top-scorer: Paulo Dybala (five)

RECENT FORM

ROMA: W W W D L
JUVENTUS: W D W W D

Roma didn’t start the year in quite the fashion they would have hoped as they lost to AC Milan last time out and Jose Mourinho will be without the services of both Rick Karsdorp and Gianluca Mancini for the visit of Juventus after both were shown two yellow cards in the midweek defeat.

That loss ended the Giallorossi’s four match unbeaten run (W3, D1) and Mourinho will be forced into a slight reshuffle as Roma look to leapfrog the visitors.

They will do so by bettering Juve’s 1-0 win in the reverse fixture on Matchday 8 and a Roma victory would end the Old Lady’s seven game streak without defeat (W5, D2).

Captain Giorgio Chiellini, Kaio Jorge and Luca Pellegrini are all back in contention for Allegri’s side but all three could be given more time to get up to speed before their thrown back into the starting XI.

Possible Juventus line-up

(4-3-3)

Szczesny; Cuadrado, Rugani, De Ligt, Sandro; Bentancur, Locatelli, McKennie; Bernardeschi, Morata, Chiesa

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Federico Chiesa

Making his first appearance since the end of November, Chiesa rescued a point for Juventus at home to Napoli last time out as his 54th minute strike secured a 1-1 draw.

His return to the side is significant as a surprisingly meagre Juve attack looks to increase its output.

Allegri may think that two starts in the space of just four days may be too much for the 24-year-old so soon after injury but it will be difficult to hold him back given Chiesa’s importance.

Whatever capacity Chiesa features in, he will be a handful and the Italy international will be desperate to improve on his record of two league goals and two assists in 2021-22 so far.

MATCH STATS

Roma have won three of their last six Serie A games at the Olimpico against Juventus (W3, D2, L1) and only Napoli (four wins) have chalked up more home top-flight victories over the Bianconeri since 2015-16.

Meanwhile, no team has kept more home clean sheets than the Giallorossi this season (five).

That stat doesn’t bode too well for Juve, whose 28 league goals - four fewer than Roma’s 32 - is the lowest tally in the top half of the table. The last time they had such a paltry first 20 matches of a Serie A season was the 1999-00 season.

In addition, on each of the last three occasions that Juve have collected 35 points or fewer at this stage of a campaign, they finished the season in seventh place (1998-99, 2009-10 and 2010-11).

PLAYER STATS

• Jordan Veretout has scored twice against Juve in Serie A, with only two French players in the league’s history having scored three or more goals against the Bianconeri (Nestor Combin and Cyril Thereau).
  
• After scoring against Milan on Thursday, Tammy Abraham could score in back-to-back Serie A fixtures for the first time.
  
• Paulo Dybala has not scored in the last six games against the Giallorossi in the competition and the Argentine only has a worse current scoring record against Fiorentina (seven).

WHAT THEY SAID

“The team produced a good performance against a decent Napoli side that knew how to make life difficult for us. In general, we have to start scoring more goals.”

- Juventus coach Allegri after the 1-1 draw with Napoli