Fiorentina will be looking to continue their encouraging start to the 2021-22 Serie A season when they travel to a struggling Venezia on Monday night.
La Viola have picked up 12 points from their opening seven matches of the campaign to occupy fifth position in the table, while the hosts are down in 17th, with just five points to show from their first seven fixtures.
Match preview
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Venezia, who earned promotion to Serie A for the 2021-22 campaign via the Serie B playoffs last term, have a record of one win, two draws and four defeats from their seven league matches this season, which has seen them collect five points to sit down in 17th, just one point outside of the relegation zone.
After the September international break, the promoted outfit recorded a 2-1 victory at Empoli, but they are winless in their four games since, losing back-to-back fixtures to Spezia and AC Milan before drawing their last two against Torino and Cagliari.
Venezia were on the verge of suffering a 1-0 defeat to Cagliari before the international break, only for Gianluca Busio to come up with a stoppage-time leveller for Paolo Zanetti's side, who will be determined to return to winning ways at Stadio Pierluigi Penzo on Monday night.
The Winged Lions will be taking on Fiorentina for the first time since the 2003-04 Serie B season, when La Viola recorded a 2-0 victory in this particular fixture.
Venezia have won 13 of their previous 42 matches against their opponents here in all competitions, but this contest will be their first meeting in the top flight of Italian football since 2002.
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Fiorentina, meanwhile, have won four and lost three of their seven league games this season to collect 12 points, which has left them in fifth position in the table ahead of the next set of fixtures.
The Purples, who finished 13th in Italy's top flight last term, made a fine start to the season, winning three of their opening four matches, but they have lost to Inter Milan and Napoli in two of their last three.
Before the international break, Lucas Martinez sent Fiorentina ahead against Napoli at Stadio Artemio Franchi, but Hirving Lozano and Amir Rrahmani answered back for the visitors to secure all three points.
Vincenzo Italiano's side have recorded three straight victories on the road in Serie A, though, and will be the favourites to overcome their promoted opponents on Monday night.
The speculation surrounding Dusan Vlahovic's future continues, with the 21-year-old - linked with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City - turning down a new contract, but Fiorentina will be hoping that the Serbian can add to the four Serie A goals that he has already managed this season in this contest.
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Team News
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Venezia will be without the services of Lauri Ala-Myllymaeki and Luca Lezzerini on Monday night through injury, but former Manchester United stopper Sergio Romero could be in the squad following his recent arrival.
The home side might switch to a 4-3-3 formation for this match, with Thomas Henry potentially featuring in the final third of the field alongside Dennis Johnsen and David Okereke.
Domen Crnigoj is also pushing to be involved in the middle of the park, while there should be another start for on loan Chelsea midfielder Ethan Ampadu.
As for Fiorentina, Bartlomiej Dragowski is expected to miss out with the injury that he suffered against Napoli, so Pietro Terracciano could feature between the sticks.
Head coach Italiano would have been pleased with his side's overall performance last time out, and it would not be a surprise to see the majority of the XI keep their spots here.
Vlahovic is a certainty in the final third and could be joined by Jose Callejon and Nicolas Gonzalez as part of a front three, but Lucas Torreira and Igor are both pushing to come into the side.
Venezia possible starting lineup:
Maenpaa; Mazzocchi, Svoboda, Ceccaroni, Haps; Crnigoj, Vacca, Ampadu; Okereke, Henry, Johnsen
Fiorentina possible starting lineup:
Terracciano; Odriozola, Milenkovic, Igor, Biraghi; Bonaventura, Torreira, Duncan; Callejon, Vlahovic, Gonzalez
We say: Venezia 1-2 Fiorentina
Venezia are more than capable of making this a tricky contest for Fiorentina, and we are expecting a close match on Monday night. Fiorentina have been impressive on their travels this season, though, and the visitors should have enough quality to pick up all three points here.
Top tip
Matt Law
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Venezia win with a probability of 41.56%. A win for Fiorentina had a probability of 31.19% and a draw had a probability of 27.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Venezia win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.62%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.53%) and 2-0 (7.7%). The likeliest Fiorentina win was 0-1 (9.73%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.88%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 11.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Venezia in this match.
