Serie A weekend talking points
By Peter Hall
Feb 21 (Reuters) - Talking points from the weekend's Serie A matches.
DOES ANYONE WANT TO WIN THE TITLE?
One look at the weekend's Serie A fixtures would have made most people think that the top two - AC Milan and Inter Milan - were certain to earn three points each against bottom side Salernitana and Sassuolo.
However, despite taking the lead in Salerno on Saturday, Milan were held to a 2-2 draw by the Serie A strugglers, opening the door for Inter, only for the champions to fluff their lines, as they were beaten 2-0 at the San Siro on Sunday.
"We know there are 13 games to go, we are all up there and want to keep going forward," Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. "The fact is, a team that wants to win the Scudetto cannot get the approach as wrong as we did today."
Napoli in third can go top with victory at Cagliari on Monday, but given the unpredictable nature of results this weekend, you would not be overly confident of such a result.
JOSE AT IT AGAIN
All the attention should have been on the AS Roma players as they fought back from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw with Hellas Verona on Saturday, but once again, after further histrionics, one man stole the headlines.
The comeback did not satisfy coach Jose Mourinho, as he was sent off right before the final whistle for kicking a ball away in frustration after pointing at his head while staring at referee Luca Pairetto, appearing to make the sign of a telephone.
Italian newspaper La Stampa said Mourinho made the gesture saying that "Juve sent you" to Pairetto, with speculation rife as he failed to speak to the media to explain his actions.
The draw left Mourinho's men down in eight place in the standings to further dampen the Portuguese coach's mood.
INJURY PROBLEMS ADD TO JUVE WOES
A positive January transfer window, as well as rivals dropping points with regularity, gave Juventus fans hope that the season was not unsalvageable following their side's disappointing start to the campaign.
Victory over Torino on Friday would have ignited faint hopes of a late title tilt, only for Juve's strike force to again fall flat as they were held to a 1-1 draw.
The real problem for Massimiliano Allegri, however, was the further injuries his squad accumulated.
Defender Daniele Rugani was injured in the warm-up and his replacement Luca Pellegrini was taken off at halftime, before forward Paulo Dybala was substituted early in the second half.
Juve were already missing centre backs Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci through injury, while Federico Chiesa is out for the rest of the season - not what Allegri needs four days before visiting Villarreal in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. (Reporting by Peter Hall, editing by Ed Osmond)
