Expert Serie A predictions and free football tips from Mark Langdon

The Premier League is the best league in the world and it's not even really close in terms of the financial advantage thanks to bumper TV deals that enable even smaller teams to make significant signings.

A combination of top managers and sustained spending can only help the English teams. However, the best does not always translate into the most fun and you'd be hard-pushed to find a more entertaining league than Italy's Serie A right now.

Gone are the days when Serie A ruled the European roost and weekends were spent watching Baggio, Batistuta and the rest on Channel 4's Gazzetta Italia.

The vast fortunes have now gone elsewhere and not since Jose Mourinho's Inter in 2010 has an Italian club managed to win the Champions League.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku were among the high-profile departures in the summer and it would be easy to see the league as some kind of sub-standard edition of its former self.

Despite that, Italy are the European champions and this season's Serie A matches are averaging 3.2 goals per game. which compares favourably to all of Europe's other big leagues. The Bundesliga is next on 3.05, followed by Ligue 1 (2.95), Premier League (2.63) and La Liga trails way behind on 1.83.

However, it's not just the goals but the fact there is no Bayern Munich-like figure standing above the rest that makes Italy the place to watch your football most weekends which should make for an enthralling title race.

It's 2-1 the field and another five teams are 12-1 or shorter behind favourites Inter. Napoli have won all of their league matches, scoring at least twice in every outing, Juve have recently beaten Chelsea in the Champions League and even Jose Mourinho is being swept away by the attack-minded nature of the league.

Over 3.5 backers have already collected in four of Roma's seven games and their most frequent score so far is 3-2, a margin Mourinho's men have already lost by twice this season.

If Mourinho's getting sucked in then you know something mad is at work and despite all of the thrills, you are never far away from some pundit ready to spout the old cliches of expert Italian defences.

Milan's 3-2 win over Atalanta before the international break was almost as bonkers as Atalanta's 2-2 draw with Inter a couple of weeks earlier and if you are at a loose end this weekend there are some crackers on the coupon.

Maurizio Sarri's Lazio host Inter, while Mourinho's Roma are at Juventus. For a best bet, though, it could be worth heading to San Siro to jump on board the Rossoneri revolution at home to Verona.

Milan have that classic mix of youth and experience and can hopefully overcome the absence of Theo Hernandez and goalkeeper magician Mike Maignan to cover a one-goal Asian handicap.

Verona have already conceded 14 goals in their seven games and their 4-0 win over Spezia last time out was a bizarre result given they lost the xG count 0.4-1.4.

Best bet

Milan -1 on Asian handicap
1pt 93-100 bet365

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