When Oliver Bierhoff hit the headlines earlier this week, following his condemnation of the state of Italian football in comparison to the Bundesliga, in truth, few offered much in the way of a rebuttal.
"Take a look at the infrastructure, the stadiums, the balance of the league and the level of teams” the former Milan and Udinese star offered, and a quick review of the league table certainly backed up these claims.
Milan top, Inter closing in and with Lazio, Roma and Juve not far behind. The same big clubs but in a slightly different order.
Yet in the aftermath of Wednesday's midweek results, perhaps there is room to argue the contrary.
In truth, things started with something of a damp squib, which nevertheless set things in motion. Third placed Lazio travelled to leaders AC Milan in arguably the game of the week on Tuesday night.
The Rome based club had been in something of a freefall in recent weeks, after enjoying an impressive start to the campaign. Milan meanwhile, appeared to be hitting top gear, with new signings Antonio Cassano and Urby Emanuelson seemingly slotting into the side with relative ease.
However, despite the seeming disparity in form and confidence, the game ended in a 0-0 stalemate, and thus the gauntlet was thrown down to second place Napoli, who could close the gap on Milan to just two points.
The previous Sunday had seen Walter Mazzarri’s side record a stunning 4-0 demolition of Sampdoria. But come Wednesday and it was Napoli who were cursing their luck.
Chievo’s 2-0 victory over the Sky Blues was certainly stunning, and it could prove to be a big opportunity missed for Napoli. Goals from Davide Moscardelli and Gennaro Sardo condemned one of the league's form teams to a surprise defeat.
One team certainly out of form and perhaps even condemned to miss out on European football altogether next season is Juventus.
The Old Lady of Turin travelled to Palermo knowing that anything but a win would surely prove the death knell to their Champions League aspirations. Much of the major action came in the first half and Juve made the worst possible start to the game.
Former Turin favourite Fabrizio Miccoli opened the scoring and when Giulio Migliaccio added a second within the first twenty minutes, boss Luigi Del Neri obviously feared the worst. A goal from Claudio Marchisio reduced the deficit on 35 minutes but an equaliser failed to materialise, as Palermo moved above Juve in 8th, up to 6th.
Roma meanwhile, also dropped points at home to lowly Brescia. Milan loanee Marco Borriello had put Claudio Ranieri’s side in front just after the hour mark but any hopes of closing in on the league leaders were shortlived with Eder levelling for the visitors.
However the draw did see Roma move temporarily ahead of Inter and just two points behind cross town rivals Lazio, with a game in hand.
Udinese’s meteoric rise up the league finally hit a snag. Previous weeks had seen the little Zebras demolish both Juventus and Inter Milan. But Wednesday’s game against Bologna proved something of a bridge too far, with Marco Di Vaio opening the scoring for the lowly visitors.
Domizzi did level the scores with 12 minutes to go but Udinese failed to find a winner, dropping behind Palermo, into 7th.
Sampdoria’s season went from bad to worse, as surprise package Cagliari snatched a valuable away win thanks to Radja Nainggolan’s first half goal which saw the visitors move to within three points of Juve.
Samp’s defeat also saw Fiorentina move further up the table. The Viola moved one place above Sampdoria to 11th, after Mario Alberto Santana’s goal sunk 13th placed Genoa.
Further down the table, Cesena and Catania drew 1-1. Maxi Lopez opened the scoring for the visitors on 8 minutes, before Jimenez levelled just after the half hour to leave Cesena 18th and Catania just one place and two points above them.
The draw allowed Lecce to leapfrog their relegation rivals into 16th, following a last gasp win away at Parma. Uruguayan journeyman Ernesto Chevanton grabbed the only goal with an injury time header which left them just a point behind the hosts.
With the teams in the relegation zone trading places and unfashionable Palermo moving nearer to the top of the table, Bierhoff may just think twice before using the Serie A standings to back up his argument. If Inter win tonight, we may even have a title race...*
*(As it turned out Inter Milan seemingly soundly defeated Bari 3-0 away from home. Leonardo's team had Houssine Kharja, Giampaolo Pazzini and Wesley Sneijder to thank for the goals, although the latter two came in stoppage time!) Ed.