5 Things we learned from Roma’s battering of Lecce

1. Now this is a team worth watching. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Gasperini’s Roma over the last few months and that hype has clearly been warranted with the way Roma have started the season. It only took them four minutes to open the scoring this evening as Hermoso played a hopeful ball forward which was picked up by Dybala who’s touch was poor but Lecce’s Kialonda Gaspar’s tackle gave the ball straight to Donyell Malen who was never going to miss with the form he’s currently on to put Roma 0-1 up, from there it was one-way traffic and in the 22nd minute Roma doubled their lead as Mathias Soule found Wesley on the overlap played the ball into the box to Donyell Malen who flicked the ball over the Lecce goalkeeper to score an all too easy goal and put Roma 0-2 up. Barely even a minute later Gasperini’s side added a third as Malen picked up the ball on the edge of the box laying the ball off to Mathias Soule who’s initial effort was saved but the Argentinian followed up and scored the rebound to all but finish the game not even 30 minutes in, before the half was finished both sides actually had chances to score with Malen going just wide for the hat-trick whilst Lecce’s Willem Geubbels had an effort saved by Svilar to keep it at 0-3 at half-time. Roma took the foot off the gas in the second half which nearly led to a Lecce goal from a corner which hit the post but they did eventually get a fourth as the ball fell to Gianluca Mancini in the box who squared it to new signing Rodrigo Mora to open his account in the Serie A, yet another statement from Gasperini’s team who are intent on challenging for the Serie A this season.

2. This is a team for than capable of challenging for a Serie A title. The last time Roma won the Serie A was in the 2000/2001 season spearheaded by Francesco Totti and it looks like they could be back at the top of Italian football this season, they had a great season last year finishing third in Gasperini’s first season in charge and now with the likes of Malen, Dybala, Soule and Mora in the frontline the sky is the limit for Roma this season. Donyell Malen in particular has had a career resurgence since moving to Italy scoring 19 goals in 20 games for Gasperini’s side which is a crazy record considering he’s never been an out and out goal scorer in his career, Paulo Dybala spent much of last season on the side-line but we did see inklings towards the end of the season that he’s still quite clearly one of the best players in Serie A when fully fit. He’s now had a full pre-season and has started the season off brilliantly so I really do hope he can have an injury-free season, arguably the most impressive part about this Gasperini team is the defence which only conceded 31 goals last season which was the third best defence in the league and they haven’t conceded so far in the first two games. Manu Kone was rumoured to be leaving this summer with Chelsea sniffing around but I don’t think it was ever realistic this late in the window to prise away one of Roma’s best players and Gasperini would have blown a casket if Kone did leave, everything about this Roma team currently screams title challenge but you do worry about injuries considering they have Champions League football as well. They couldn’t have started any better.

3. What was that performance from Lecce? I’m not an avid watcher of Lecce who managed to stay up on the last day of the season with a win against Geona and kicked off this season with a win against Venezia but they played today like a pub team who had nothing to play for, the first half was comical at times just giving Roma goals which you wouldn’t expect from an under-12 side which must have infuriated Di Francesco who signed a new contract with the club over the summer. The second half was much better but it literally couldn’t have gone worse and they really should have scored from a couple of the situations they created, they have recruited players over the summer but it remains to be see whether or not they can stay in the division again this season. With more performances like today they’ll find themselves in the Serie B in no time.

4. Is this the same Donyell Malen that played for Aston Villa? I asked myself this question a number of times last season but yet again I’m asking it again, I couldn’t believe what I was watching at times with the Dutchman banging in goals for fun from January to May which is why I thought he was going to have a massive World Cup over the summer. That didn’t happen unfortunately thanks to a number of reasons with the main one being Ronald Koeman but it quite clearly hasn’t put Malen off who has opened up the season with 5 goals in 2 matches, I suppose playing in your natural position does play a part in your form which Ronald Koeman must find crazy. Gian Piero Gasperini had a quite remarkable record of getting the best out his attackers at Atalanta with the likes of Josep Ilicic, Duvan Zupata, Luis Muriel, Papu Gomez, Ademola Lookman, Gianluca Scamacca just to name a few and he’s continuing that sequence at Roma with Donyell Malen. I wonder just how many goals he’s going to end up on this season? You put it past him getting 30 in all competitions, what a season that would be.

5. Any more business to do before the deadline tomorrow? For Roma I think their window is closed and what a window they had, making the Malen deal permanent, signing Rodrigo Mora from Porto for quite a cheap price who already looks like he can contribute to the team, Nahuel Molina from Atletico Madrid for a full-back option whilst bringing in Leonardo Balerdi and Martin De Roon to cover both defence and midfield. It’s been a great window for Roma but a winger would add the cherry on top, probably not going to happen but you never know. For Lecce I think they need a whole new team ahead of the deadline tomorrow, I’m kidding but with the lack of goals last season it is so important that Geubbals hits the ground running as they badly need someone who is reliable in front in goal. With the window closing tomorrow I wonder if there’ll be any late incomings for either team, only time will tell.