Two giants of Italian football collide as Claudio Rainieri's Inter welcome the Old Lady to the San Siro. While the men from Milan continue to underperform this season, the most successful side in Italian football have finally started to show signs of former glories with an impressive start, which sees them still unbeaten as we reach week nine.
These two could hardly be further apart at present and three managers in the past year tells you all you need to know about Internazionale. It wasn't so long ago that the black and blues were the top team in Europe and with a squad list including stars like Sneider, Zanetti and Maicon it's hard to see how they have managed such a dreadful start. Five games was all Gasperini was allowed before the axe came down after recording one draw and four defeats. Stability and improvement was needed and former Juve boss Rainieri was assigned to halt the sinking ship. Fans could be forgiven for thinking it wasn't the best idea to appoint a man known by the nickname “the tinker man”, due to his constant chopping and changing of personnel, and to date results have not improved significantly enough to say the appointment was the wisest.
Meanwhile, over in Turin, Juventus have started the season like a team intent on returning back to the top of the pile, including a fine 2-0 win over champions AC Milan. Former player Antonio Conte has brought a solid workman-like mentally back to the team and, coupled with standout performances from Claudio Marchisio and Simone Pepe, they have been in top spot more often than not since the season started in September. Inter should provide a tough test to the emerging bianconeri, but, having been as predictable as the British weather so far this season, nobody quite knows which Inter team will turn out come 7:45 on Saturday evening.
Will Inter make it back to back home wins for the first time since May? Can Juve extend their unbeaten start to the season?
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