Roma revel at their fast start to the Serie A season

“We will improve game by game“.

French striker Cyril Thereau struck for Udinese 12 minutes from time to give Juventus their first home defeat on the opening day in 87 years.

Roma’s new Egyptian star Mohamed Salah has been selected in Rudi Garcia’s squad to face Juventus on Sunday.

Furthermore, Roma are a side who are particularly top-heavy with central midfielders, and to also accommodate them into the side makes it tempting to play a system where you can utilise three central midfielders instead of just two.

“This is a great club, and a project that also includes the Champions League”.

Having said that, just watching Dzeko, whether the run of play was heading his way or not, you could tell something was different; the attack has some teeth and an actual endpoint this season, while Salah is a more well-rounded player at this point that Iturbe.

Mandzukic has a Uefa Champions League title to his name – won with Bayern Munich – and a reputation to fix after a mixed season at Atletico Madrid, where he turned out not to be the best man to replace Diego Costa, although he had his moments before rubbing up badly against Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone.

Roma’s 1-1 draw at Hellas Verona in the opening match appeared to put the capital club on the back foot right from the start – until Juventus’ surprise defeat the following day.

Slovakian Norbert Gyomber (Catania), VfB Stuttgart defender Antonio Ruediger and Lucas Digne (PSG) have all signed on loan deals, but the club’s forwards have yet to find their feet, too.

Juve travel to title rivals Roma this weekend and Cuadrado is ready to be thrown straight into action by coach Massimiliano Allegri. But, Allegri has refused to panic and has said that he expects his team to bounce back quickly.

The Azzurri lost 2-1 at Sassuolo last time out and seek their first league success under new coach Maurizio Sarri. Against Verona we only played to win after going a goal down.

The 23-year-old forward’s best performance last season came against the black and whites as he scored an incredible brace in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final. “I want to see that attitude from the get-go this time, as if we were chasing the game already”, said the 51-year-old, whose side has had a poor record against the Turin giants, winning only one of their last 10 Serie A games against Juventus – that victory coming in February 2013 when Francesco Totti secured a 1-0 home win.

I bring this up because this Sunday is the first Juventus-Roma showdown of the season, with the second round of games in Italy’s top flight giving one heck of an early-season main event. Across the 38 match days of 2014/15, they held a higher position than Juventus in the table only twice, and never after September.