As the season moves on, a few things are becoming clearer. Some of the players we've been accustomed to seeing over the years are being slowly fazed out of the starting eleven.

Today's 1-1 tie with Sampdoria showed a team with a newfound sense of confidence. Allegri (despite some curious flaws which we'll talk about later) has the team at the top of the Serie A with a three point lead over Lazio.

This past weekend marked the day every Milanista circled on their calendars months ago. The heated Derby Della Madonnina has gone Intergentina's way for the past years. We all bitterly remember the Adriano handball, Gattuso's sending off in the 4-0 loss last year. It has been an overall traumatic affair for Milanisti, seeing their city rivals win a historic treble, and Moratti's yellow toothed grin casting an ominous aura over the San Siro.

This summer - everything changed. Mourinho's magical tactics were handed over to Rafa Benitez, who fizzled them and created an inferior team compared to last years. Berlusconi had a Florentino Perez-esque epiphany one morning and decided to stop buying mediocre Dutch strikers and finally splurge. In come Robinho and Ibra. Meanwhile across town, Inter lose their dynamic youngster Balotelli, who always scared the daylights out of me when he suited up in the black & blue stripes.