As the old saying goes, ‘‘tis the season to be jolly!’ Try telling that to a Juventino right now. As bottom-of-the-table Catania celebrated a historic victory over the Bianconeri this weekend, the Sicilians must have thought it was Christmas-come-early. For us, the winter break could not have come quicker. Talk of a crisis is growing, and rightly so.

Set your mind back to last Saturday night, and re-live the elation of defeating the champions and blowing the title-race wide open. Now fast forward ten days and consider how very wrong things have gone since the full time whistle was blown in Turin that night. A 4-1 thumping at home to Bayern Munich, elimination from the Champions League ensued. An equally embarrassing 3-1 defeat away at Bari on Saturday, back to square one in the Scudetto race. It would seem the Bianconeri are in the festive spirit and are handing out gifts quicker than Santa on his annual round.

The Derby d’Italia. Widely regarded as the most prominent game on the Serie A calendar, involving two of Italian football’s chief powerhouses. With a sparkle of trickery and a delightful chip over a desperate Julio Cesar, Claudio Marchisio wrote himself into Bianconeri folklore as he scored one of the most important goals of his career to date to give victory to Juventus.