Fiorentina are top, and Inter are the side nobody can knock down

Fiorentina lead Serie A. Say it plainly, because a week ago it would have sounded like a provocation and now it is the table: 21 points from eight games, seven wins, one defeat, and Juventus beaten 1-0 in Florence on Saturday to hand the Viola the summit the Bianconeri had been minding.

That was the game of the cycle and it went the way the loudest corner of Tuscany demanded. One goal, no reply, and the lead changes hands. Juventus, who came into the afternoon with designs on staying clear, leave it third on 19 points, a single point behind the Viola and one behind Inter, and with the best goal difference in the division as scant consolation. The old champions are not gone. They are simply no longer ahead.

Inter are the ones who refuse to lose. Their 3-1 win at Perugia keeps them unbeaten: six wins, two draws, 20 points, and a goal difference of +13 that says they are not merely surviving games but squeezing them. Second place, one point off the top, and a squad that looks like it has decided nobody is going to outlast it.

Lazio will feel the chill. Held 1-1 at Sassuolo, they have now played nine games and sit fourth on 19 points, level with Juventus but with a game more gone. A fortnight ago they were being written up as the team to catch; now they are the team being caught, and the memory of that defeat in the Rome derby to these very Viola is not so distant after all.

Roma did their part, 2-0 away at Cosenza, and climb to fifth on 15 points. Bologna produced the rout of the round, 4-0 against Cittadella, and Atalanta took a 2-1 win off Milan that shoved Milan down from fifth to eighth. Udinese beat Torino 2-1 and Napoli beat Bari 3-1, and both were rewarded with a climb — Udinese from fifteenth to twelfth, Napoli from twelfth to ninth. Frosinone's 3-2 win at Brescia cost Brescia four places, eighth to eleventh, and Frosinone followed it with a 2-2 draw against Atalanta on Friday.

At the bottom, Cittadella are still waiting for a first win: two points from eight games and a goal difference of -13. Perugia, beaten at home by Inter, are eighteenth on six points, and Cosenza nineteenth on four. The season is young enough for rescue and old enough for worry.

So the picture after eight games: Fiorentina first, Inter unbeaten and hunting, Juventus and Lazio breathing on their necks, and a chasing pack led by Roma. The north will tell you it is early. Of course it will — the north is no longer top.