Roma 4-2 Cagliari: Giallorossi stay unbeaten and climb to 21 points

9 games, 0 defeats, 23 goals scored. Roma beat Cagliari 4-2 and carry those numbers into 3rd place, with 21 points. The record reads 6 wins and 3 draws. Goals conceded: 8.

Cagliari's 2 goals are the part that gets people talking. Roma won by a 2-goal margin, but they left the back door open. Was that a risk we could have seen coming?

A Roma side that scores and blows hot and cold

Before kick-off, recent form read 2 wins and 3 draws in the last 5, with 9 goals scored and 5 conceded. The latest result was the 3-3 draw at Napoli, preceded by a 2-0 win over Genoa and a 0-0 draw at Como. Before that came the 2-2 home draw with Inter.

Widen the lens to the last 6 games, this one included, and the picture is split down the middle. In 3 of them Roma kept a clean sheet: Torino 2-0, Como 0-0, Genoa 2-0. In the other 3 they conceded at least 2: Inter 2, Napoli 3, Cagliari 2. That's a side that swings between extremes rather than a defence in trouble: over the season they have conceded 8 in 9 games.

The attacking weight has a very visible name on the scoresheet. Donyell Malen leads the team with 7 goals and 1 assist this season. Behind him are Niccolo Pisilli with 3 goals and Matias Soule with 3 goals and 1 assist. They show where the output comes from: a clear focal point and 2 team-mates sharing the load.

Cagliari: form was heading the wrong way

Cagliari arrived in Rome on a rough run. In their last 5 they had 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats, with 4 goals scored and 8 conceded. The 2 most recent outings were a 0-2 home loss to Bologna and a 0-4 thrashing at Monza. Before that came a 1-1 draw with Juventus, plus narrow wins at Udine (1-0) and away at Atalanta (2-1).

Scoring, then, was far from a given: in the previous 3 games the Sardinian side had managed 1 goal in total. That puts the 2 goals this time in perspective. Cagliari ended a near-total drought, but stayed a long way from a win.

The name to watch is Daniel Maldini, with 5 goals this season: he is Cagliari's top scorer. In the table the team sits 9th on 13 points, with 4 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats, 8 goals scored and 13 conceded.

Was this result predictable?

The head-to-head record told a different story. In 4 meetings there had been 4 goals in total: Roma had won 2, Cagliari 1, with 1 draw. The last 2 meetings finished 2-0 to Roma at home and 1-0 to Cagliari in the game played in Cagliari. A 4-2, with 6 goals in a single game, runs against that history.

On the win itself, though, form pointed one way only: an unbeaten side, with 9 goals scored in the last 5, against a team coming off 2 straight defeats and with 8 goals conceded in the last 5. Roma's success confirms that reading.

On Cagliari's 2 goals, the pitch gives a less clear-cut signal. Roma had already conceded 3 at Napoli and 2 against Inter, so a game with the back door open fitted their recent pattern. Cagliari, who had scored just 4 goals in 5 games, found the net 2 times. The final score sits within those numbers; the only gap from the precedents is in the total number of goals.

What to watch in the coming days

Keep an eye on 2 things. First: can Roma repeat the clean sheets of Torino, Como and Genoa, or will they keep scoring plenty and conceding a little? Second: will Malen and Soule keep driving the attack, with the table now at 21 points? For Cagliari, 9th on 13 points, the question is whether the rediscovered goal touch will be enough to stop a run of 3 straight defeats.