High-flying Lazio will be aiming to further close the gap behind the leading duo when they take on Milan, a team that have been utterly disappointing at the start of the campaign.

With the squad suffering only minor facelift over the summer, the Biancocelesti were always expected to hit the ground running early on.

New boss Vladimir Petkovic led the team to three straight victories at the start of the league campaign, while back to back defeats to Genoa and Napoli that followed were not enough to destabilize the side.

Lazio went on to win next three games in all competitions, meaning they will be brimming with confidence ahead of the clash with underperforming Milan.

With that in mind, the Biancocelesti look a good bet to win the game at odds of 2.40 (7/5) offered by Sportingbet.

Ederson is back in contention after recovering from injury, but Stefan Radu, Modibo Diakite and Christian Brocchi are rated doubtful.

The most important thing is that Miroslav Klose will be leading the attack, and after scoring 5 goals in last 3 games for club and country, the German is 2.62 (13/8) with 888sport to score against Milan.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-4-1): Marchetti – Konko, Biava, Dias, Lulic – Ledesma – Candreva, Gonzalez, Hernanes, Mauri – Klose.

Club president Silvio Berlusconi has nobody to blame for the poor start to the season but himself, having sold two key players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva in the summer.

With a number of experienced players also leaving, the Rossoneri should have signed quite a few quality players to compensate but they have failed to do so.

As a result, Milan have picked up just 7 points from as many league games, although they have been showing some improvement of late.

The Champions League victory over Zenit inspired the players to a great performance in the derby match against Inter, but they were not properly rewarded for the impressive showing at San Siro.

Milan now have no choice but to go for a win against Lazio, and you should know away win pays 3.20 (11/5) at William Hill.

Alexandre Pato returns to the side, but Massimo Ambrosini, Sulley Muntari, Didav Vila, Rodney Strasser, Djamel Mebash and Robinho are all unavailable and Christian Abbiati is doubtful.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Amelia – Abate, Bonera, Mexes, De Sciglio – Montolivo, De Jong – El Shaarawy, Boateng, Emanuelson – Pazzini.