Roma revel at their fast start to the Serie A season

Roma's Alessandro Florenzi, left, celebrates with teammates Raja Nainggolan, center, and Seydou Keita after scoring, during a Serie A soccer match against Hellas Verona at the Bentegodi Stadium in VeShow more

Roma have been enjoying the fact that during the past six days that they can look down on Juventus in the Serie A table.

True, it is only one match into the campaign, but for the serial runners-up to see the champions without a point or a goal, it feels encouraging.

Roma may not have revved up fully yet, but Juve have barely taken off the handbrake.

Truth is, Romans have learned to savour rare moments of advantage against the Juve juggernaut during the last 12 months. Across the 38 match days of 2014/15, they held a higher position than Juventus in the table only twice, and never after September.

Go back to 2012/13, and the challenge was more sustained. Roma’s remarkable start to that campaign had them top of the league throughout the autumn, and for 12 weeks they peered down on Juventus before the champions reeled them in.

This time, the two leading contenders for the championship meet early. Sunday’s contest in the Italian capital should focus minds and provide an insight into how far Roma might close what has been a yawning gap between first and second, the past two seasons.

Roma finished 17 points behind Juventus as the Turin club marched to their third successive title in 2013; for their fourth, last May, Juve maintained the same margin over Roma.

Neither team sparkled on the opening weekend of the season, although Roma coach Rudi Garcia said he was reasonably happy with the 1-1 draw against Hellas Verona, a result and performance put into flattering relief by Juve’s 1-0 loss to Udinese.

The broadly-shared idea that Juventus might have teething problems this month and next was always based on the substantial changes to the spine of the team that the summer departures of Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez entailed.

To see Juve struggling to find their bearings against Udinese was to realise there really is work to do for coach Max Allegri.

Charged with filling the hole left by the energetic Tevez is Mario Mandzukic, a different type of striker but one who brings with him some of Tevez’s worldliness and football intelligence.

Mandzukic has a Uefa Champions League title to his name – won with Bayern Munich – and a reputation to repair 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 have brought in a striker with some of Mandzukic’s assets, too. Edin Dzeko is tall, good in the air and keen to prove that last season, by far the least successful as a scorer of the four-and-a-half he spent with Manchester City, was not a sign of long-term decline.

Dzeko and Mandzukic are both 29, and they are old friends, too. Mandzukic once described the Bosnian Dzeko to me as “the best striker in Europe”.

At the time they were colleagues at Wolfsburg, the surprise German champions, thanks in large part to Dzeko’s 26 league goals, only two behind teammate Grafite for the most in the Bundesliga.

Wolfsburg had firepower in abundance. The strong striking partnership Dzeko enjoyed with the Brazilian Grafite, later of Al Ahli, meant Mandzukic being asked to play in wide positions, often on the left.

Back then, Mandzukic did not begrudge his fellow Balkan taking centre stage.

“When I came to Wolfsburg, because we spoke the same language, he looked after me and we spent a lot of time together off the pitch,” Mandzukic said of Dzeko. “He’s a good guy.”

Tomorrow afternoon, they share a pitch no longer as newcomer and chaperone. The Croatian will want to better his Bosnian friend and record his first Serie A win, and his first Serie A goal, before Dzeko does.

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