Roma v Empoli
15:00
Roma bounced back from their disappointing home defeat against Napoli with back-to-back victories against Palermo and Sassuolo to remain in 2nd, two points clear of Napoli, though they’re eight behind Juve. Empoli, meanwhile, have lost their last six and so remain down in 17th, though fortunately for them the bottom three continue to lose as well so they’re still seven points clear of Palermo in 18th.
Roma have won 16 of their last 17 at home, with the exception that defeat against Napoli, whilst they’ve won nine of 10 unbeaten games at the Stadio Olimpico against bottom-six sides since the start of last season. They kept only two clean sheets in these games, with eight of these seeing more than three goals as four of their victories were by more than two, despite that lack of clean sheets.
Empoli managed to put two past Napoli in defeat last time out, but that was at home, and they’ve now failed to score in 11 of their 14 road games this term, so this looks an excellent opportunity for Roma to add to their clean sheet tally. However, Empoli haven’t conceded more than twice in any of their five trips to top-six sides to date, so they’ll hope to keep things respectable here, despite the fact that centre-back Costa is suspended. Indeed, since they’re lost 2-0 at Juve, Inter, Napoli and Lazio (Costa also missed two of those defeats), that scoreline looks worth backing here at 7.0.
Recommendation: Roma 2-0 Correct Score at 7.0
Betting intelligence provided by Football Form Labs
