Roma travel to Como with more than another early-season fixture at stake. Gian Piero Gasperini is one Serie A victory away from reaching 300 in his career, while his side can add another marker to a start that has already placed them in the Scudetto conversation with Inter.
The number would put Gasperini among a small group of coaches to have reached that level in the league. Giovanni Trapattoni remains ahead on 352 wins, followed by Massimiliano Allegri on 324, Luciano Spalletti on 306 and Nereo Rocco on 302.
For Gasperini, it would be a personal landmark built over long spells at Genoa and Atalanta before his move to Roma, where he took the club back into the Champions League in his first season. Yet the immediate value lies in the three points: a win at Como would strengthen Roma’s belief and keep the pressure on Inter at the top end of the table.
Quick facts
- Gasperini is seeking his 300th Serie A win as a coach.
- Roma have taken 13 points from their first five league matches.
- A victory would give Roma at least 16 points after six rounds for only the third time in club history.
- Roma have won their last five Serie A away games.
- The club’s longest run of consecutive league wins on the road is 12, achieved between February and November 2017.
The match also brings together two coaches from different stages of their careers. Cesc Fabregas and Gasperini share a preference for taking initiative, though Como and Roma are expected to seek control in contrasting ways.
Roma will look to compress the pitch and press Como’s build-up man for man. The plan is to force mistakes high up the field, regain possession close to goal and attack quickly into space.
Fabregas’s response is likely to depend on possession: moving both the ball and his players, drawing Roma’s press forward and then finding the gaps behind the first wave. Como’s ability to play through that pressure may shape the afternoon.
If Roma disrupt the passing lanes and recover the ball in the final third, their pressing can become chances almost immediately. If Como escape cleanly, they can expose the spaces left by an aggressive visiting side.
History within reach for Roma
Roma’s opening five matches have produced 13 points, a total they had previously reached or surpassed at this stage only four times. They collected 15 points in both 2014-15 and 2013-14, while 1994-95 and 1952-53 each began with 13.
Three points at Como would take Roma to at least 16 after six games for the third time. The previous occasions were the 18-point opening in 2013-14 and the 16 achieved in 1952-53; in the three-points-for-a-win era, only the team coached by Rudi Garcia had managed it.
There is an away-day record in view as well. Roma’s current sequence of five league victories away from home can become six, although the club’s only longer Serie A run remains the 12 straight road wins put together from February to November 2017.
At Como, then, the figures sit alongside the football. Gasperini can move closer to the league’s most successful coaches, while Roma can turn an encouraging opening into a more meaningful statement in a championship that is beginning to take shape.
