AC Milan kept their slight Serie A title chances alive by beating Roma 3-1, remaining in third place in the league and nine points behind league leaders and cross-town rivals Inter Milan.
Early in the first half, Yacine Adli put the Rossoneri one goal ahead before Olivier Giroud doubled Milan's lead soon after the interval. Roma reduced the deficit after Leandro Paredes dispatched a penalty following Davide Calabria's foul on Lorenzo Pellegrini. Six minutes from the end of regulation time, Milan sealed the victory after Giroud set up Theo Hernández, who emphatically buried his first-time shot from the edge of the penalty area.
Milan's victory sent a clear message to Inter and Juventus: they cannot be ruled out of the Scudetto race by any means. Having overcome a recent slump, Milan have now won four of their last five league matches and are playing arguably their best football thus far this season. During this recent hot streak, Milan also picked up an impressive Champions League away win against Newcastle United to ensure that despite their elimination from the tournament, Milan would nevertheless finish third in Group F and enter the Europa League's round of 32.
A pivotal reason behind the uptick in Milan's recent level of play has been the improved play of their off-season acquisitions who have become increasingly comfortable in the red half of the city. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders are playing at a level well above that of earlier in the season, while the acquisition of Christian Pulisic from Chelsea for €20 million is beginning to look like a masterstroke. The American midfielder has looked like a player reborn after his struggles at Stamford Bridge and been arguably Milan's best player this season.
Earlier this season following Milan's loss to Inter in the Derby della Madonnina, I criticized Milan head coach Stefano Pioli for his questionable tactical approaches and tendency to overthink the situation to the detriment of his team. This has not been the case in recent weeks, and this trend continued against Roma. Pioli's substitutions were on point throughout and his tactics kept Roma largely neutralized for much of the match. Much of the early-season buzz surrounding Pioli's potential firing has somewhat quietened; if he can stay on this path for the next several weeks, he will almost certainly survive until the end of the season.
Should the club owners choose to pull the plug on Pioli's tenure at the end of the season, the possibility of Antonio Conte's hiring would become a very real one. A four-time Serie A champion with Juve and Inter, Conte would bring stability and consistency to Milan. Despite his ties to Milan's two arch-rivals, Conte is by far the preferred choice of most Milan fans as to who should succeed Pioli in the dugout. However, one sticking point could be transfer budget matters. Conte has typically preferred to work with larger transfer budgets - and this could end up being a turn-off to the club's ownership.
This segues into the next point. As of right now, Milan are very much still a work in progress. However, Milan have not been linked with any players of particular note during this January transfer window. Last month, it had been claimed that Milan were most interested in adding a centre-back, centre-forward, left-back, and central midfielder. Thus far, though, Milan have only landed one player: right-back Filippo Tetracciano, signed from Hellas Verona for €4.5 million - not a splashy signing by any means. Other names which have been thrown around include Juan Miranda, Assan Ouédraogo, Jakub Kiwior, and Benoît Badiashile - the latter two on loan deals; however, none are even remotely likely to move the needle much.
In some ways, AC Milan's match against Roma served as a microcosm of their season to date. They're not in an awful position per se and have been trending in the right direction. That being said, Milan are at still at risk of another season that fizzles out. They're still unlikely to win either Serie A or the Europa League. If nothing else, at least a top-four spot is, barring a late-season collapse, all but safe. It could thus be said that this season sees Milan in a "no man's land" - but the real question will be what they do after it.
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