Marcello Lippi believes Inter have made Serie A “more interesting” but still expects Maurizio Sarri to take Juventus to another title.
Juve and Inter both won their respective fixtures against Atalanta and Torino on Saturday, and they remain separated by a single point at the summit after 13 games.
Lippi, who coached the two sides, welcomes such a scenario, even if he expects there to be only one winner.
“It’s very nice because it has certainly made the start to the season more interesting,” he told Corriere dello Sport. “I think it may last until the very end.”
“In August I thought there would have been three teams involved, but Napoli have fallen behind and it will be difficult for them to catch up.
“[Carlo] Ancelotti is a very good coach; I can guarantee you that he will improve the [Napoli] squad but, even if he gets them through this difficult period, the gap is now already too big.
“The campaign will be more open compared to the previous years and this is very good for Italian football.
“In Italy, Juventus are still the only unbeaten team, they are already through to the knockout stages of the Champions League and are League leaders. And, they are just taking 60-70 percent of their chances.
“Juventus are going through a period of transformation, from the style of Allegri to that of Sarri. So far, he has won more thanks to the quality of the individuals rather than his style of play.
“The win in Bergamo proves this. They suffered for long periods, but then the class of [Gonzalo] Higuain, [Paulo] Dybala and others weighed in.
“The opponents of Juve should be worried. As soon as the Bianconeri improve their performances, there won’t even be a story this year.
“In football you can’t take anything for granted and the maths is something else.
“Since one team have been winning for eight years and strengthened further over the summer, it’s inevitable to expect that this era of success will continue.”
Despite promising a refreshed style of play, the 71-year-old – who recently stepped down as China CT – claims Sarri will only implement changes at Allianz Stadium gradually.
“The change of coach could have negatively affected them and created difficulties, but only if Sarri hadn’t been intelligent. However, Maurizio is intelligent and knows the world of football very well.
“He has already managed to bring some of his ideas without lowering the performance levels that Juventus have played at, first with Conte and then with Allegri.”
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