Having finally climbed to the top of the standings with a hard-fought triumph over Livorno, Juventus will want to continue the impressive run of results when they host Udinese in Turin. Meanwhile, the Zebrette enjoyed a very important victory over Fiorentina, but they now face anther tricky away tie.

Llorente finding his feet

While talented coach Antonio Conte had the backing of club board to build a star-studded squad, the former Juventus midfielder has got to take credit for turning the Bianconeri into one of Europe’s best sides. The Old Lady have been incredibly consistent despite playing in two very strong competitions and they are slowly reaping the rewards of all the hard work. And while the Bianconeri were somewhat unfortunate not to already secure progress into the Champions League knockout stages, their Serie A campaign is going exactly according to plan. In spite of some amazing showings in the league, Juventus were unable to climb to the top of the standings as Roma recorded ten straight victories, but they did really well to take advantage of the Giallorossi’s recent slip-ups and are now back where they belong. With summer signing Fernando Llorente raising his form and Mirko Vucinic returning into action, Juventus’ attack should be even more lethal than before, while other areas of the team remain in perfect working order. And with their next opponents largely struggling on the road, another comfortable home win looks on the cards.

Kwadwo Asamoah misses out through suspension, whereas Stephan Lichtsteiner is doubtful and Simone Pepe, Mauricio Isla and Sebastian Giovinco are out injured.

No longer a force to be reckoned with

Udinese had done brilliantly to remain one of Italy’s top sides despite seeing key players leave season after season, but it appears the current crop of players does not have the required quality to keep the results at a high level. It is perfectly clear that talismanic striker Antonio Di Natale is not getting any younger, while other important players seem to be going through a very rough patch. And while the Zebrette have been showing glimpses of quality, usually at their Friuli, they clearly lack the quality or character to match the best sides in the league. Francesco Guidolin’s side have lost five of six away matches this term, defeating only newly-promoted Sassuolo, which is enough to suggest they have nothing to hope for before the clash with by far the strongest team in the league. Given that their front line will be severely weakened by the absence of explosive forward Luis Muriel, it would take a real miracle for Udinese to get something from Turin.

The victory over Fiorentina came at a cost as Luis Muriel picked up a thigh problem, whereas Marcos Ranegie remains on the sidelines.

Verdict

Juventus appear to be on top of their game at the moment and they will want to secure the victory as soon as possible and still save some energy for the difficult list of fixtures. Having lost five of six matches on the travels this season, struggling Udinese are unlikely to cause the hosts a lot of problems on Sunday afternoon.

Top pick: Juventus/Juventus   1.83 (5/6) @ Paddy Power

Alternative pick 1: Juventus with -1.5   1.91 (10/11) @ Betfair

Alternative pick 2: Juventus to win to nil   2.10 (11/10) @ Ladbrokes