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The top six sides all faced each other on a memorable weekend in Italy. While Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the big match-winner, earning and scoring an early penalty that gave AC Milan a 1-0 win over Inter, the individual performance of the weekend came from Palermo's Javier Pastore, who hit a hat-trick in the 3-1 derby win over Catania. Elsewhere, Lazio beat Napoli 2-0 while Juventus and Roma drew 1-1.

The Milan result heaps more pressure on Inter boss Rafa Benitez, whose side have now scored just five goals in their last eight Serie A games and are six points behind leaders Milan. Inter are 3.1 for the title, while Max Allegri's team, still a work in progress, are 2.34 favourites. Benitez is struggling with a squad that has too many players aged over 30 and under 23, and blamed the World Cup on the slow performances of his key players. "You can see that the team looks to Diego Milito, Samuel Eto'o and Wesley Sneijder for ideas and they are not at the same fitness or form levels as last season," he said.

How much of that is down to Benitez rather than the summer tournament is open to debate. Milito's agent has already publicly cricitised the coach for not giving his man the same opportunities as he had last season, mainly because he is picking Eto'o as the centre-forward now. Sneijder, meanwhile, has called Benitez's predecessor Jose Mourinho "my father in football" and has been struggling with fatigue all season.

Sneijder fainted at half-time during a recent match, and is one of 14 of the 23 Dutch World Cup players who has been injured in recent weeks. After playing in the Champions League final, and then reaching the World Cup final, Sneijder only had an 18-day holiday and, in a recent interview, revealed that Benitez worked his new team really hard during the pre-season in July and August. According to Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen, recently of Manchester City, "World Cup players don't need hard training in pre-season as they are already very fit. All they need is to get rid of their fatigue ­ so a hard pre-season exhausts World Cup players even more, so eventually they will get injured and then the coaching staff blames the World Cup."

There are no such problems at Palermo, where Pastore was also in World Cup action but has been in sparkling form this campaign. His hat-trick, an authentic one as it featured a header, and then left-footed and right-footed goals, takes him to seven goals for the season ­ one behind Eto'o and Edinson Cavani - and overshadowed, temporarily at least, last week's quit threat from president Maurizio Zamparini after key decisions went against Palermo in their 3-1 loss to Milan. "I hope that all the fans of the small clubs and some of the big ones can hit the streets to protest for a radical change. I am too old to keep fighting. I have already given orders to sell the club, so the new post-Zamparini era has already begun."

Pastore may not finish the season as top scorer ­ Eto'o is 2.26, Ibra, on six goals is 3.5 with Cavani (4.1) - though Palermo are 6.8 to finish in the top four, which is what the Argentine has said his ambition is for the season. They are currently three points behind fourth-placed Juventus. Pastore is the jewel in Zamparini's crown, and his decision to reject an offer from Real Madrid this summer ­ the Spanish side bought Mesut
Ozil instead ­ is looking inspired.

"He reminds me of Zinedine Zidane with his grace and elegance," Zamparini told a French newspaper recently. "There are not many players like Javier: he's from the same mould as Messi," he told the Argentine press. "One thing is for sure though: of all my children at Palermo, Pastore is my favourite son," he added. "He's what you call a "fuoriclasse": super-top class."

If Zamparini stays at Palermo until the end of the season, he could cash in on Pastore, and new midfielder Armin Bacinovic, recently linked to Chelsea, and leave with his head held high. That's if he leaves at all: after all, he's made similar threats before.


By Ben Lyttleton

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