Following some very good results in pre-season, Chievo hope to start the league campaign with a bang and create an early advantage over relegation rivals. Newly promoted Novara already look like the main candidates for the drop, but the game at Bentegodi will be a perfect opportunity to prove the doubters wrong.

Chievo looking good

Season after season, Chievo are tipped as one of the teams most likely to get relegated, but the Flying Donkeys always manage to survive without too many problems. Led by talented Stefano Pioli, the team from Verona finished the previous league campaign in 11th place and they are now hoping for another successful season. Chievo did stay without Kevin Constant and Andrea Mantovani, but they signed Perparim Hetemaj, Francesco Acerbi, Rinaldo Cruzado, Kamil Vacek and Michael Bradley among others, so new boss Domenico Di Carlo has a pretty good squad at his disposal. Chievo showed a lot of promise in pre-season, winning five games and only sharing spoils with Racing Santander, with their wealth of Serie A experience likely to give them the upper hand in the clash with Novara.

Peru national team playmaker Rinaldo Cruzado is set to start just behind strikers Pellissier and Paloschi, as coach Di Carlo prepares to field his side in 4-3-1-2 formation.

Will Novara go straight back to Serie B?

Novara shocked the whole nation by gaining promotion from Serie B, but they now face a mountain to climb in Italy’s top flight. The club management did their best to reinforce the squad over the summer, but the tight budget prevented them from signing real reinforcements. Radovanovic, Paci, Morimoto, Garcia, Dellafiore, Jeda, Meggiorini and Labrin all arrived to increase competition for places, but with most of the arrivals spending last season on the fringes at their respective clubs, they can hardly be expected to help keep Novara in the elite division. The squad are really short on Serie A experience and not used to the difficult survival battle that awaits them, so I really doubt Novara can avoid the drop this season.

Coach Attilio Tesser will have full squad to choose from, with new signings Meggiorini and Morimoto expected to form the attacking partnership.

Verdict

Chievo lost two important players from last season, but they were able to compensate for the absence of Mantovani and Constant by signing several very good players and the Flying Donkeys look more than capable of beating Novara at their Bentegodi. The newly promoted side failed to properly reinforce the squad over the summer and that is likely to cost them dearly this season. Clear home win for me.

Our prediction: Home win

Odds: 1.91 (10/11)

Bookmaker: Bet365