ROME – After an uncharacteristically slow start to the season, which saw last year’s double winners sitting in 12th position in Serie A after the opening ten fixtures, Juventus have returned to form with a stunning run of ten successive victories. The Bianconeri are now second in the table, just two points off leaders Napoli.

 At the end of October just four months after guiding his team to a domestic double and the final of the Champions League, it seemed implausible that Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri would be under any sort of pressure. However, after a dismal haul of 12 points from the opening ten weeks of the season, Juventus President Andrea Agnelli issued a stark warning.

 “We knew the process of renewing the squad could create some problems, but it's not a justification for our current place in the table," said Agnelli, intimating that despite the previous season’s success, Allegri’s team need to climb the table, and quickly!

 The beginning of the 2015/16 season was always going to be a challenge for the Old Lady, who lost Andrea Pirlo to the sunnier climbs of Major League Soccer in the United States, and their striking talisman Carlos Tevez to his native Argentina. Furthermore, after the departure of midfield enforcer Arturo Vidal to Bayern Munich and a late injury to Claudio Marchisio, the Bianconeri were forced to start the season with only Paul Pogba from the midfield, which had taken them to the final of Europe’s premier club competition in May.

 Undoubtedly the pressure of being Juventus’ go-to man weighed heavily on Pogba, whose form dipped in the opening weeks of the season. However, the Frenchman’s fortunes have rather resembled his team in recent months, as he is now returning to his best form alongside the aforementioned Marchisio and Sami Khedira, who has also returned from injury. The German was known for suffering injury problems at former club Real Madrid, yet his quality has never been in doubt. Juventus are yet to lose with Khedira in their starting XI.

 A major turning point in the Old Lady’s season arrived at the end of October when Torino visited the Juventus Stadium for the Derby della Molle. A scrappy game resulted in a 2-1 win and acted as a catalyst for an impressive run of form which saw Juventus beat AC Milan, Empoli and Palermo in Serie A and Manchester City in the Champions League, all during November.

 As the season progressed into December, the Bianconeri began to hit the sort of form, which has seen them victorious in each of the last four Serie A campaigns. An away victory at rivals Lazio was followed by a dominant performance at home to Fiorentina. In recent weeks, Verona, Sampdoria and Udinese have all been crushed by the Juventus bulldozer, which shows little signs of stopping. 

 We missed many things during the first half of the season," said Allegri earlier this week. “But I was not worried because we changed so much over the summer. A period of adjustment was to be expected. But we still have a lot of work to do and can improve further."

 A the season enters it’s latter stages, these will be concerning words for Juventus’ would-be title rivals. Should the Old Lady continue to improve at such an impressive pace, it would be a brave punter to bet against a fifth successive Scudetto crown come May. 

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