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AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan to vie for Serie A title

Juventus has the best midfield, AC Milan has the leading attack and Inter Milan has a load of new players and a burning desire to win its first Italian league title since 1989.

They will be the three big contenders for this season's Serie A title when the competition kicks off on Aug. 27-28.

Defending champion Juventus has bolstered its midfield with the addition of Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira. He will play alongside Emerson, Pavel Nedved and Mauro Camoranesi.

Milan signed veteran Italy centerforward Christian Vieri and new Italy centerforward Alberto Gilardino to join Andriy Shevchenko in attack.

Inter signed three players from Real Madrid, led by Luis Figo, and has a new starting goalkeeper in Brazil's Julio Cesar.

"Juve is the most complete team. Milan can alternate champion strikers game by game and Inter is a work in constant growth with a desire to win that is unparalleled and puts it on the same plane as Juve and Milan," Italy coach Marcello Lippi said.

"No one did better in the final phase of last season," Lippi said of Inter, which finished third behind Juve and Milan and won the Italian Cup.

Udinese, fourth last season, Sampdoria, which came fifth, and AS Roma appear to be the leading contenders for fourth place this season and the final Champions League berth. Fiorentina and Palermo are also expected to finish in the top half.

"We're going for the title too, there's no reason why we can't fight with Milan, Juve and Inter," Roma captain Francesco Totti said.

Juventus will be without Gianluigi Buffon for three months after the goalkeeper underwent surgery on his right shoulder.

While Vieira is the only new player set to take over a starting position, Juve can also field high-scoring Romanian striker Adrian Mutu this season. Mutu joined Juventus for the second half of last season but was unable to play while he served a seven-month ban for using cocaine while at Chelsea.

Captain Alessandro Del Piero will start the season on the bench for coach Fabio Capello, now in his second season in Turin.

"We have an extremely competitive roster in terms of quality and quantity. And compared to last year we know each other better and have all been together from the first day of training camp," Capello said.

Milan's toughest problem may be deciding whether Vieri or Gilardino should start alongside Shevchenko. Vieri appears to be ahead in preparation. Gilardino scored 23 goals in each of the past two seasons with Parma, while Vieri produced 13 in each of the past two years at Inter.

Lippi does not think Milan will suffer psychologically from its collapse in the Champions League final, where it gave up a three-goal lead to Liverpool.

"They're in the middle of a winning cycle," Lippi said.

Milan has been experimenting with a three-man defense, as opposed to its normal four-man back line.

Having let Vieri go to Milan, Inter is relying on the success of a youthful attacking duo -- big Brazilian forward Adriano and speedy Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins.

"They've played together for a year. The more they play together the better they'll get until they become one of the best duos in the world," Inter coach Roberto Mancini said.

At 40, Mancini has a youthful approach that many credit for Inter's recent improvement.

"We're four months ahead of where we were at this point last year," Mancinisaid.
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