Early predictions for the 2022–2023 Serie A season.

With more than a quarter of the season now played the Serie A table is beginning to take shape, although this campaign will be different from many others. Although Italy will not be participating in the World Cup, many of the teams will have players from their respective countries. That means that, like the rest of Europe, the league will stop for more than a month and only resume after Christmas.

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Nobody knows what effect this break will have. For those on World Cup duty there is the risk of injury or fatigue afterwards, but will those forced to sit it out benefit from the extra rest or grow rusty without competitive action?

One intriguing question is can Napoli last the difference? When the club decided to sell star names like Lorenzo Insigne, Koulidou Koulibaly, and Dries Mertens in the summer and replace them with cheaper, largely unknown names, many of their supporters were unhappy and believed it was a sign of an owner looking to save money.

However, having strengthened their forward line with the likes of Giacomo Raspadori and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia they have swept to the top of the football, playing a brand of possession based football that is very easy on the eye.

Manager Luciano Spalletti has also seen his team get off to a great start in the Champions League. They beat Liverpool in front of the Napoli fans and then handed Ajax their worst home loss ever in Europe.

A lack of experience may prove to be their undoing in the home stretch, but they should still be in contention for a top-three place.

Milan are the defending champions, and, after a slow start, have begun to move into ear and have moved into the third place, a point behind Atalanta.

Their Scudetto win last season was their first in a decade, but, having now got that particular monkey off their back, they will be confident they can make it back-to-back successes.

Their Milan neighbours Inter are down in seventh, and have already lost four matches this season. Whilst they may believe they can still mount a challenge one of their frustrations so far has been the inability of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martínez to resume their partnership due to the continuing injury problems of the Belgians.

However, Inter are one place and two points better off than Juventus, who are struggling right now. Victory in the Turin derby at the weekend relieved the pressure for a while on manager Massimiliano Allegri, but with their Champions League hopes all but over, his tenure seems insecure.

It would be no surprise to see him lose his job unless there is a sudden upsurge in fortunes, and his team might struggle to challenge for a top four place again.

Sampdoria are the bottom side at present, albeit with a game in hand. They have yet to win this season and are already contemplating life in Serie B next season, although who might join them is anybody’s guess, with Cremonese, Verona, Bologna and Lecce among the sides who could find themselves looking over their shoulders.