Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini claims that there are no favourites to win the Italian Serie A and he expects a very tight finish to the season. The club are once again back in the title race after a very poor start to the campaign.

Back in September, there were doubts about manager Massimiliano Allegri staying in the job. Juventus appeared to be fighting against relegation. Now, though, it is a different story and the team will be going into 2016 on a positive frame of mind. The team has won the last five matches and are only two points away from leaders Napoli.

It looked like Inter Milan were going to be favourites for the title, but two defeats in the last five games has put them into the third spot. Juventus have been able to jump ahead of the Milan team by virtue of a better goal difference.

It is extremely tight at the top with the first four teams separated by just three points. This might be one of the reasons behind Chiellini’s assumption that Juventus cannot be considered as favourites just because they have won the title in the last four seasons. The Italian champions were able to go into the winter break with a fifth straight win after the 2-1 victory over Sampdoria.

Whilst fans had to make do with online casinos to keep themselves busy over the winter break the Juve players were working hard at an interational football camp in Dubai – hoping to re-kindle some form and be ready to hit the ground running when the games re-started.

“There have been some difficult situations this season. For the first two months the older players did not have the right attitude. There was negativity within the group, but slowly the air is changing and now you can sense a different atmosphere. We eventually got back on track and have now won all these games. There are no favourites [for the Scudetto]. We have not done anything yet but the confidence is growing and again we were solid,” said the Juventus defender after the Sampdoria game.