By Trevor Stynes
Dec 11 (Reuters) – AC Milan aim to extend their unbeaten Serie A run and maintain top spot when they host Sassuolo this weekend while Napoli and Inter Milan face away trips after suffering midweek Champions League losses.
Massimiliano Allegri’s Milan lost to Cremonese on the opening day, but have since gone unbeaten in the league, racking up nine wins in 13 games on their way to the summit.
Milan went out of the Coppa Italia to Lazio last week, but defeat came with the silver lining of fewer games to come, and with Allegri’s side not involved in Europe that may play a major role in the title race.
Sassuolo arrive at San Siro on Sunday on the back of a 3-1 win over Fiorentina which took them to eighth in the standings and while Milan are without injured winger Rafael Leao, Christian Pulisic is available.
The American recovered from the flu to make the bench for Monday’s game at Torino. Pulisic scored 35 seconds after coming on and netted another 10 minutes later to complete Milan’s 3-2 comeback win.
Keeping Pulisic fit will be crucial to Milan’s Scudetto hopes. The winger, more usually deployed by Allegri as a second striker, has played nine league games out of 14 and started a mere five times but has already notched seven goals.
Sassuolo, meanwhile, are without the services of forward Andrea Pinamonti who went off injured during the Fiorentina win having started every league game this season, scoring four goals.
CONTE’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE BLUES
Defending champions Napoli are second in the standings, level on 31 points with Milan and enjoyed recent wins over AS Roma and Juventus, but defeat by Benfica on Wednesday was their third loss in as many away games in the Champions League.
“It’s not the single match, but the accumulation of many games that leads to a build-up you can end up paying for,” manager Antonio Conte told Sky Sports after the 2-0 defeat.
Conte’s side need to recover for an away match at Udinese on Sunday. Udinese have lost three of their last four games, with two of those defeats coming at home.
Inter are one point off Milan and Napoli in third and have won their last two league games but Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Liverpool was their second successive Champions League defeat.
Cristian Chivu’s side are at Genoa on Sunday, a team which looked like relegation certainties after failing to win any of their opening nine games but since sacking Patrick Vieira they are unbeaten in five and are 14th in the standings.
Roma lost top spot with back-to-back defeats dropping them to fourth on 27 points and they host Como on Monday who are three points behind in sixth.
Juve’s loss at Napoli last weekend leaves Luciano Spalletti’s side in seventh place and eight points off the leaders ahead of another tricky away game at Bologna on Sunday.
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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