Lazio’s record breaking start

In an electrifying Serie A Enilive season full of surprises, the biggest twist has come at the top of the table. Looking down on the rest, alongside reigning champions Inter, are Gennaro Gattuso’s Lazio. Six wins, one draw and 19 points from their first seven matches: the Biancocelesti have never made such a strong start in the three-points-for-a-win era, not even during their most successful seasons.

The 3-0 win over Juventus added another prestigious scalp to an already outstanding start. Lazio had not won at the Allianz Stadium since 2017/18, when Simone Inzaghi’s side claimed a 2-1 victory. That had also been the Biancocelesti’s only win at Juventus’ new stadium.

Their only slip-up, if it can even be called that, remains the 2-2 home draw against Milan, which came after they had taken a two-goal lead into half-time before the Rossoneri mounted a comeback led by Moreira. Away from the Olimpico, however, their record is flawless: four wins from four away games, a feat previously achieved by only two Lazio sides, managed by Roberto Mancini and Simone Inzaghi.

Meanwhile, the standings at Formello give Lazio every reason to look beyond their pre-season expectations. After finishing outside the top six in each of the previous three seasons, the prospect of competing for a European place has quickly become a realistic one.

**Even better than Eriksson’s Lazio
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To find a comparable start, we have to go back to the 1999/2000 season, when Lazio won their second Scudetto. After seven matchdays, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s side had collected 17 points from five wins and two draws. Their progress had been checked by Bari, who held them to a 0-0 draw on Matchday 2, and Milan, who played out a spectacular 4-4 draw at the Olimpico in a match that remains one of the defining games of Italian football in the late 1990s.

Built under president Sergio Cragnotti, that Lazio side was a well-balanced team overflowing with talent, in Eriksson’s third season in charge. They had also come within a single point of winning the Scudetto the previous season. In their first seven matches, they had already scored 18 goals, four more than the current Lazio side. Four came from Juan Sebastián Verón, while Simone Inzaghi and Marcelo Salas had scored three apiece. Stanković, Mihajlović, Bokšić, Almeyda and Pancaro had also found the net. This was a squad built to win, with top-class players in every position. Gattuso’s Lazio, by contrast, started from a very different position.

A comparison with Lazio’s first Scudetto-winning season, 1973/74, also highlights the scale of the current team’s achievement. Tommaso Maestrelli’s side, inspired by Giorgio Chinaglia’s goals, began with three wins, three draws and one defeat, suffered against Juventus: nine points under the two-points-for-a-win system, equivalent to 12 under the current system.

Lazio’s 2017/18 side under Simone Inzaghi came closer, but still fell short: five wins, one draw and one defeat in their first seven matches, for a total of 16 points. It was a team capable of producing attacking, spectacular football, stopped only by a heavy 4-1 home defeat to Napoli on Matchday 5.

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Ten Different Goalscorers: The Strength of the Team**

While Eriksson’s Lazio could rely on a squad of superstars, one of the keys to Gattuso’s revival has been getting the best out of players already at the Club.

The Calabrian coach arrived after three consecutive seasons outside the top six, with last season’s ninth-place finish representing Lazio’s worst league position in a decade. Restrictions in the transfer market meant the Club had to adopt a selective recruitment strategy and place greater emphasis on the resources already available.

Among the new arrivals, Davide Frattesi made an immediate impact, scoring three goals in the opening three matchdays, each one helping secure a victory. Once the midfielder’s initial momentum had faded, however, the team’s other attacking options came to the fore, with goals and responsibility shared across the squad.

Isaksen and Noslin, with two goals apiece, are the only other Biancocelesti players to have scored more than once. The Dane found the net in consecutive matches, making the most of his excellent physical condition, while the former Verona forward has provided valuable options in a less familiar role as a false nine, showing mobility and an ability to link up with his teammates.

Gudmundsson, Dele-Bashiru, Pinamonti, Nuno Tavares, Cancellieri, Provstgaard and Zaccagni have each scored once. In total, ten different goalscorers in seven matchdays, the joint-highest tally in the league alongside Inter.

This distribution highlights Lazio’s ability to find contributions in every area of the pitch. Nuno Tavares’ goal against Monza was a particularly telling example: a powerful long-range strike and his first goal in Biancoceleste colours, capping a revival under Gattuso, who has helped him regain both confidence and an important role in the team’s plans.

Clinical finishing and balance: what the numbers tell us

Lazio’s position at the top of the table becomes even more intriguing when their team statistics are examined. The Biancocelesti boast the third-best attack in the league, with 14 goals, and the second-best defence, having conceded just four. These are numbers worthy of a team at the top, although the underlying performance indicators paint a less dominant picture.

Gattuso’s side rank ninth for PPDA, a measure of pressing intensity, 15th for recoveries in the final third and 10th for possession. Their attacking output is also some way off the league’s leading teams: 14th for total shots, 12th for expected goals (10.2) and 11th for touches in the opposition box.

Lazio are therefore not a side that consistently dominates possession, suffocates opponents with pressing or generates a high volume of chances. Their results are instead built on limiting danger, they rank fourth for expected goals conceded, and making the most of the opportunities they create.

Two particularly telling statistics support this assessment: Lazio have the league’s second-highest shot conversion rate (15.56%) and rank first for the difference between goals scored and expected goals (+3.85). They have scored almost four goals more than the quality of their chances would suggest.

Attention to detail, commitment and team spirit explain much of this impressive start. Lazio concede few chances, do not need to create a huge volume of opportunities to score and are capable of producing different match-winning figures from one game to the next.