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The unthinkable almost happened last season as Inter Milan came extremely close to upsetting the Juventus apple cart in Serie A, with the latter only winning the league title by a whisker.
Though Juventus clinched their ninth Serie A title on the trot, they were almost denied this feat by a resurgent Inter Milan, coached by the experienced master tactician Antonio Conte, who will be gunning for the title with renewed vigour this season.
Here's why we think Juventus will be denied a 10th straight Scudetto by Conte's Inter Milan.
5 reasons why Inter Milan will beat Juventus to the Serie A next season
#5 Andrea Pirlo has no real coaching experience
When Juventus went to club legend Andrea Pirlo to steer them to their Champions League dream in the coming season, most experts were shocked.
Pirlo was indeed one of the greatest footballers of his generation and knows the DNA of the team for whom he won four Serie As. However, the former regista has absolutely zero coaching experience at the highest level and was coach of the Juventus U23 team for nine days before being made the manager of the first team.
With him expected to deliver on all fronts and to manage a team of veritable superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, he will clearly undergo a baptism by fire in his first coaching job.
#4 An unsettled team
Ever since Juventus moved away from the pragmatic but highly successful tactics of Massimiliano Allegri to attempt a more adventurous and aesthetic style, they have looked like an unsettled team.
Though Cristiano Ronaldo has fit in brilliantly into Serie A, the team, which was coached by Maurizio Sarri last season, struggled to adapt to his possession-based Sarriball system that required rigorous effort from the players.
Juventus stars struggled to adapt to the system, as confessed by Sarri himself, and stayed afloat in the league thanks to goals from Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala, who had rediscovered his mojo. An unconvincing Bianconeri just about scraped to the Serie A title and looked at their uninspired worst against Lyon in the Champions League second leg.
Long-term midfield fulcrum Miralem Pjanic has, meanwhile, moved on to Barcelona, with Arthur Melo going in the opposite direction.
That's the biggest central midfield addition that the club have done in recent times, with them focusing on getting more strikers with a past-his-prime Luis Suarez being heavily chased.
It is not yet clear what kind of strategy Pirlo will employ with the players already befuddled by two contrasting styles used in two consecutive seasons by two very different managers (Allegri and Sarri).
#3 Serie A will not be Juventus' priority
It is not often that a manager loses his job after guiding his team to the league title. However, that is what happened to Maurizio Sarri, who took Juventus to their ninth successive Serie A crown, albeit unconvincingly.
The impatient Juventus board were in no mood to give him any more time to help the team learn his style and promptly showed him the door after their shock Champions League exit.
Allegri also departed after winning the league and failing to win the Holy Grail for the Bianconeri- the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo was brought in for this very purpose.
It is clear that Pirlo's priority will be to compete on all fronts and to do his best to win the Champions League. However, his rival, Antonio Conte, knows the pressure of competing for multiple trophies and may trump the former in this count.
#2 Antonio Conte will be determined to deliver the league
Antonio Conte is a Juventus legend. He won the league with the Old Lady multiple times both as a player and a manager. Thus, when he took up the offer at Inter Milan, one of Juventus' fierce rivals, howls of derision emanated from the Allianz Arena with the Bianconeri faithful saying that he has tarnished his legacy at Turin.
Conte knew the risk he was taking by joining the Nerazzurri. He was also determined to prove to the world he had not made a mistake. His primary target as Inter manager was to break the Juventus hegemony in Serie A and he nearly did so last season.
When he failed, Conte was so distraught that he almost left the club. Now that he has committed himself to Inter Milan for another season after getting support from the board, the serial winner will do his best to snatch the league away from the Turin giants.
He has won the league title in every club he has coached from Bari to Chelsea. The odds might be on his side to continue the streak.
#1 Inter Milan have done better business in the transfer window
As stated before, Juventus and Pirlo haven't done much in the transfer window so far and look unclear in their approach. Conte and Inter Milan, on the other hand, have made some exciting additions to their team.
Achraf Hakimi, one of the hottest young talents in Europe, has been picked up by Conte who loves the 3-5-2 formation. Young and talented central midfielders Nicolo Barella and Stefano Sensi, who played for Inter on loan last season, have been given permanent deals.
Inter already have a wealth of talent in the centre of the park, with there being suggestions that they might even offload some of the midfielders including Christian Eriksen if they get the right fee for him.
Furthermore, they have experienced left-back Alexander Kolarov and have also given a permanent contract to the embattled Alexis Sanchez.
Inter are also reportedly chasing Arturo Vidal and N'Golo Kante (though that attempt has reportedly failed) as they look to mount a serious challenge for the Serie A title.
Juventus, who have long been the masters of the transfer game with the addition of exciting talent like Matthijs de Ligt last season and the free signings of Adrien Rabiot and Aaron Ramsey, have decidedly come off second best so far.
Only returning loanee Emre Can is the other big name apart from Arthur to come to the club. They have, however, picked up young US star Weston McKennie on a loan deal but despite his obvious talent, one will have to wait and see if he can deliver for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
One must remember that the great Juventus sides of yore were great at getting talented players for low fees or free transfers. From Fabio Cannavaro to Andrea Pirlo, from Paul Pogba to Kingsley Coman, all had joined the club on free transfers. This time though, they look a bit lost during the window.
