Napoli snubbed of title favourites label as Lecce earn huge boost

It has been an unusually entertaining Serie A season thus far, with just four points separating the league leaders Napoli from Juventus in sixth place. At the bottom of the standings, the situation is just as fierce and as we get closer to the halfway point, it looks like the entertainment will continue.

While the odds haven't changed massively in recent weeks, there are still some interesting changes to note, so let's take a look at these below.

Napoli extend lead with significant advantage

Napoli have been in the lead since round six and even though Atalanta gave it a good go at the weekend, beating Parma 3-1, the response came immediately as the Partenopei beat Roma 1-0. The slightly tougher games - Inter, Milan and Juve - are now behind them but despite this, the odds are still longer than Inter at 10/3.

When you consider the fact that Antonio Conte's men don't have any European competitions to deal with, it's indeed a bit strange that they aren't the favourites. Speaking of which, Inter battered Hellas Verona at the weekend as they scored five goals in the first half. With that in mind, maybe the odds of evens to win the Serie A title are justified.

Atalanta have been somewhat of a surprise as there were some concerns in the summer, but those of you who read our pre-season preview will know this form was always a possibility. They have won a staggering seven (!) games in a row, including the clash with Napoli, and bookies have them priced at 6/1 in the Scudetto race.

Fiorentina have done exactly the same, i.e. winning seven consecutive games, certainly turning things around after a rather rocky start (no wins in the first four games). No one is expecting Raffaele Palladino to keep this going, though, so they are priced at 33/1 and that is behind rivals like Juventus and AC Milan.

Lecce handed much-needed boost

Shifting focus to the bottom of the standings, Lecce earned themselves a much-needed confidence boost with a 1-0 win against rock-bottom Venezia. Patrick Dorgu was the big hero with the only goal of the game, and his strike saw Lecce move from odds of evens to 7/4 in the Serie A relegation battle.

Marco Giampaolo, the new manager, thus clinched a win in his first game and it remains to be seen if he can keep this up. In our pre-season preview, we pointed out that the 10/3 odds were far too high for Lecce and we were proved right by the recent sacking, but the latter is also what could get them out of the battle.

There is very little hope for Venezia, priced at 4/7 on most bookies, and Genoa are also struggling at 11/10 despite technically being outside the relegation zone for now. The feeling is that Monza and Como, who are the other relegation teams currently, will be able to pick themselves up but a change is needed before the end of the year.