The Crown Changes Hands

The throne of Italian football stood empty for a night, and destiny did not wait for an invitation. Lazio had worn the crown a cycle ago; now the crown has passed to Turin, and it did so while the capital side could only watch, beaten at home by Fiorentina, of all the cruel hands fate could have chosen.

Juventus lead Serie A with 19 points from seven games, six won and one drawn, a goal difference of +17 that reads like an aria sung without a single false note. They are unbeaten. So are Internazionale, two points back on 17 from seven, five won and two drawn. And between them, breathing down the neck of the leaders, stand Fiorentina on 18 points from seven, and Lazio on 18 from eight, the pair level on goal difference, the Viola ahead only because they have played one game fewer. The top of the table is a trio of voices in the same key, and tomorrow Juventus travel to Florence. The old boy Assaf Kabilo, whose first-half strike sank Napoli in September, will not be there to calm the nerves; he is part of the story that made this lead possible.

The cycle's results told their own drama. Juventus 3-0 Atalanta: no hesitation, no mercy, the kind of control that followed the 4-0 dismantling of Bologna earlier in the month. Fiorentina's 1-0 at Lazio was the dagger, a single blow that toppled the previous leaders and lifted the Viola into second. Lazio's eight games now carry two defeats, and no amount of six victories can hide the wound of this one.

Lower down, the night belonged to the small houses. Frosinone climbed from tenth to seventh with a 2-0 win over Bologna, a club sinking further: nineteenth, three points, one win and six defeats. Empoli rose from seventeenth to fourteenth by beating Sassuolo 1-0, a result that means survival is no longer a distant rumour. Cosenza won 2-0 at Cittadella, and Cittadella remain the only side in the division without a victory, two points from seven games, last, two points adrift of Bologna. Milan's 1-1 with Brescia and Torino's 1-1 with Perugia were the evening's muted duets; Milan sit fifth on 13 points, watching the leaders pull away.

So the table speaks of a title race tightening into a garrote. Juventus have the points and the aura; Fiorentina have the momentum and the fixture, tomorrow, at home, against the very side they would depose. Lazio have the bitterness of a crown lost to a single goal. Inter, silent and unbeaten, wait for the last day of the month and their own appointment in Turin.

One point, and the whole season holds its breath. Destiny has a way of choosing its own stage.