Lazio top, but can anyone stop Juventus scoring?

Seven games in, Lazio sit top of Serie A with 18 points. Six wins, one defeat, a goal difference of +10. Then you glance at second place and the picture sours for the capital: Juventus, 16 points from six matches, unbeaten, +14, a game in hand. The table says Lazio are leaders. The table also says Juventus are waiting.

There is no arguing with the champions' week. Juventus went to Brescia and won 3-0, then came home and dismantled Bologna 4-0. Two clean sheets, seven goals, nobody laying a glove on them. Inter, unbeaten too, are less ruthless: 3-1 over Torino, 3-0 against Crotone, then a 0-0 at Bari that leaves them fourth on 14 points and wondering where the sharpness went.

Roma did their part for the city's mood with a 3-0 win over Napoli, while Milan answered the Udinese defeat by thumping Bologna 4-1. Bologna, though, are sinking: 3 points from six games, five defeats, 18th, and now the worst goal difference in the bottom three bar Cosenza.

Up the table, Fiorentina have climbed from eighth to third on 15 points, and Udinese's 3-1 win over Milan lifted them from 20th to 14th. Brescia, Frosinone and Udinese all moved up; Sassuolo slid from second to seventh, Bari from seventh to 13th, Empoli to 17th. At the foot, Cittadella and Cosenza are still without a win, Cosenza with a single point.

"We are top because we earned it," a Lazio voice insisted this week, and fair enough. But Fiorentina arrive next, and the champions are breathing. The question is not whether Lazio deserve first place. It is whether they can still be there when Juventus have played their extra game.