Since the league resumed, every match has had at least one goal. The goal tally is also rising: Italy is increasingly resembling other European leagues.

Gianni Brera once said that a perfect match would end 0-0. Perfect balance, pure tactics, no mistakes for the opposition to exploit: this was once the beauty of Italian football, where Catenaccio was not a disgrace but an art form. Perhaps that was true, but Serie A today seems determined to break with tradition, proclaiming the abolition of the 0-0 scoreline.

Since Fiorentina and Genoa drew goalless at Stadio Franchi on May 10, Serie A has not had a single match end 0-0.

More than four months and 73 matches have passed, the league has ended and restarted, yet the situation remains unchanged.

In the first five rounds of the new season, we have witnessed at least one goal in every match. To find a drought of clean sheets lasting this long, one must go back to the 1949/50 season, 77 years ago. That was also the only season, like the current one, without a 0-0 draw in the first five rounds.

The first 0-0 draw of that season came only in round seven: AC Milan versus Lazio. Compared to now, it was a completely different picture: just over a week earlier, the same fixture with home and away sides reversed, ended with a dramatic 2-2 comeback by AC Milan. The new refereeing rules, introduced to limit time-wasting and break up play, are clearly having an effect: at this stage last season, there were 4 goalless draws, and the season before that, 6.

Serie A increasingly resembles other European leagues. If Roberto De Zerbi says that in Italy a coach who "keeps two consecutive clean sheets" is considered the best in the world, then rising star Cesc Fàbregas has complained about this Catenaccio tradition: "It's very difficult to win in Italy," he once told The Athletic. "There are so many 0-0s and 1-0s. Teams try to limit you with defence and pressing, not with attack. I watch Bundesliga, La Liga and Premier League. The way teams defend differs so much between leagues. When you watch Premier League teams, you see a clear structure. Here, many times you can't even understand what's happening on the pitch."

Como sits just 3 points behind the leaders; perhaps Cesc has identified the issue, or perhaps has even completely changed things. Serie A is moving closer to Europe's top five leagues in terms of an open season start and the trend of prolonged 0-0 droughts, except for the Premier League.

It has maintained this trend since the 1958/59 season, while other European leagues have only seen similar trends reappear in recent years. La Liga is particularly striking, having started with a goalscoring flurry for 15 consecutive seasons; Ligue 1 has had 6 such seasons. Closer to Italy is Bundesliga: there, high-scoring starts have occurred only twice, most recently 13 years ago.

This shift in Serie A is also reflected in attacking play, with 145 goals scored in the league from round one. Since the 2004/05 season, when the league returned to 20 teams, only three seasons have had more goals at this stage: 152 goals in 2013/14, 159 in 2021/22, and notably 186 in the 2020/21 season, the pandemic year with uncontrolled pace. An average of 2.90 goals per match is also the fourth-highest in this period, behind only 2.96 in 2016/17, 3.04 in 2019/20, and 3.06 in 2020/21.

This context is also seen as a statement about a "new Serie A": with more goals and less defensive balance. Inter Milan 5-3 Udinese, or Roma 2-2 Inter Milan, are no longer just symbols of a turbulent summer, but a preview of a goal-filled autumn.

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