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Como are very strong and will play for the Serie A title

Daniele De Rossi, one of the most interesting managers to listen to in this Serie A for the depth of his thinking and his refreshingly direct honesty, spoke plainly last night: "Como are a really very strong team. Perhaps they are the team who have impressed me most since I have been here at Genoa and have come here to Genoa to play. Here at Marassi I had not yet seen a team like them, both individually and collectively."

Those are not the words of an excitable fan or a pundit chasing a headline. They are the immediate, almost instinctive admission of a manager who knows football from the inside and has clearly picked up on the same thing that the sharpest among us have seen too: Como really are very strong.

Strong enough, and it's worth making that clear as early as the third matchday so there is no misunderstanding, that on the pitch they can challenge for the Serie A title.

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No, this is not a wild claim or the usual early-season heresy. It is a view built on a series of points that need making straight away.

Above all, there is what De Rossi himself laid out. Como are strong, they have personality and they play the kind of modern football so many sides aspire to. Full stop. Home or away. Big side or small, Fabregas' Como always try to dictate the game. And they almost always do. That was already true last season. It is even more true this year. When a team know what to do and how to do it, and often get the result as well, why should they not be taken seriously? Because of the badge on their chest? Right now, what really remains of the big clubs in Italian football is, above all, their heritage. And Chivu's half-provocation about AC Milan and Juventus, made yesterday in his press conference, contains an element of truth if you are willing to look beyond the usual pub debate.

There is a psychological and emotional side to it too. Fabregas's Como are young, very young by the standards of a Serie A still trying, and only just managing, to renew itself. But this is youth in the best sense. A certain swagger, that's it. They play without the burden of history and that is why they dare: they press high, swarm back to the ball the moment they lose it, and accept the risk of leaving space in behind rather than losing their identity. It is modern football, vertical in its thinking even when the build-up is horizontal, and it is a style that causes problems for opponents used to a different kind of match. That is why De Rossi, used to reading the game first as a midfielder and only then as a manager, was struck as much by the individual as by the collective: it is the perfect synthesis of what Como have become.
The second issue is more prosaic, but just as decisive: squad depth. The additions of Milla and Samuele Ricci in midfield are not signings made simply to make up the numbers, but a potential answer to the durability of the department that is key to the control required by the manager. Two extra options give Cesc's trusted men in the middle a chance to catch their breath when the fixtures pile up. Through the middle in attack, the arrival of Moise Kean brings exactly what was missing: a genuine alternative to Douvikas, a different profile, capable of attacking space and guaranteeing goals even when matches tighten up. He is neither just an alternative nor a starter "by default", especially given the valuable work Douvikas does, but another top-level solution to call on. From the start or during the game. In short, Como have strengthened. Their squad is certainly not Inter's, granted, but it is still deep enough.

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One factor matters as much as, if not more than, the names in the squad: time. This is the fourth year with Fabregas in the dugout, and the playing principles can only become more and more automatic. Como have fully absorbed a footballing idea. They play even quicker, make fewer mistakes and stay recognisable even in difficult moments. That, after all, is the difference between reciting a script and living it.

The clearest objection is also the most obvious one anyone would make about a club facing European commitments for the first time: the Champions League. "It will sap energy, divide attention, physically wear down a squad unaccustomed to juggling two competitions." That has been the main argument about Como since the end of last season and right through the summer. Fair enough, it is a legitimate concern. But our league's recent history tells a different story from the one people fear.
People said exactly the same about Gasperini's Atalanta on their European debut. In their first real season among Europe's elite, that Dea side not only stayed on its feet but reached the Champions League quarter-finals. In the league? Third place, not far behind Sarri's Juventus, who won the Serie A title, and Conte's Inter, who finished behind Juventus. Burnout never came. The extra workload gave that team rhythm, international know-how and hunger. There is no reason to think Como cannot live the same positive paradox.

Even at this early stage, the opening signs have already said plenty: Fabregas' Como have the numbers, the right age profile, the playing idea and now the squad as well not to stop at the role of "surprise" - though surprise of what, really? - from last season. De Rossi's words do not sound like mere pleasantries either. If anything, they sound like a warning to those involved.