Mario Balotelli’s return to Milan, this time to play for AC rather than Inter, made the headlines on Transfer Deadline Day and a few days later he is back in the headlines again. At times at Manchester City he was known as Stupid Mario but on Sunday evening he was certainly Super Mario by scoring twice, including a last minute winner from the penalty spot, in Milan’s 2-1 victory over Udinese.

Having failed in his appeal to overturn his 10 month suspension for his role in the match-fixing scandal, Juventus have had to make do without their animated coach Antonio Conte overlooking proceedings on the sidelines – but that hasn’t stopped them from getting off to an absolute flyer in the opening two games. Having said ‘goodbye’ to club legend Alessandro Del Piero during the summer, Juve needed to make an impact early doors, especially given the scandal that has once again clouded Serie A. They also needed someone to step up and fill the huge void in the team. Overcoming Udinese, recently eliminated from the Champions League by Braga, that ‘someone’ would be the ‘Atomic Ant’ Sebastian Giovinco, scoring a brace in a 4-1 win at the Stadio Friuli, other goals coming from Arturo Vidal from the penalty spot and Mirko Vucinic. Andrea Pirlo in particular picked up where he’d left off at the Euros and ran the show once again in what was an almost faultless performance from the Old Lady, making it six points out of six following their opening day victory over Parma. Having failed in their attempts to add Fiorentina’s Stefan Jovetic to their squad before Friday’s deadline, Juve at least added Nicklas Bendtner on loan for the rest of the season from Arsenal, certainly giving them another striking option for their squad.