Torino will look to stretch their league unbeaten run to four games on Monday, when they make the trip to take on Venezia.
The hosts now sit in the bottom three of the Serie A table with three points from five games, while their visitors are four points better off in ninth place.
Match preview
© Reuters
After winning the Serie B playoffs last season, Venezia had a tough start to life in the top flight, as the campaign began with 2-0 and 3-0 defeats to Napoli and Udinese respectively.
Paolo Zanetti's side bounced back to put their first points on the board at the third time of asking, as Thomas Henry and David Okereke fired them to a 2-1 away win over Empoli.
They were unable to build on that though, as the victory was followed by a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Spezia, before they met league leaders AC Milan in a tough test last time out.
While Zanetti's side managed to keep the game goalless for more than an hour, they were eventually broken down as Brahim Diaz put the Rossoneri ahead with 20 minutes to go, and Theo Hernandez added a second late on to condemn I Leoni alati to a fourth league defeat in five outings.
Venezia will now hope to bounce back from consecutive defeats, but they face another difficult challenge as they welcome a Torino side who have found some form in recent weeks.
© Reuters
After back-to-back losses to start the season, Il Toro have since bounced back, collecting seven points from their last three outings.
They put their first points on the board with a 4-0 thrashing of Salernitana, as Antonio Sanabria, Gleison Bremer, Tommaso Pobega and Sasa Lukic all got on the scoresheet in a dominant display, before they made it consecutive victories as an 83rd-minute Marko Pjaca goal saw them defeat Sassuolo 1-0.
In their push to continue a strong run of form, Ivan Juric's men faced the tough test of hosting Lazio, and Pjaca looked to have fired them to a 1-0 win, only for Ciro Immobile to hit a 91st-minute equaliser for the visitors and force a share of the spoils.
Despite that late disappointment, Il Toro will be pleased with their progression in recent weeks and will look to bounce back to winning ways on Monday, with the chance to climb further up the top half with a victory.
- L
- L
- W
- L
- L
- W
- L
- L
- W
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
- W
- W
- D
Team News
© Reuters
Venezia remain without a long list of players through injury, as Lauri Ala-Myllymaeki, Luca Lezzerini, Luca Fiordilino, Ridgeciano Haps and Arnor Sigurdsson are all set to continue spells on the sidelines.
Thomas Henry should lead their line, after opening his account for the season in the win over Empoli, following a summer move from Belgian outfit Leuven.
He could again be flanked by Dennis Johnsen and Mattia Aramu in Zanetti's preferred 4-3-3 system.
Similarly to their hosts, Torino are also without several players through injuries, as Simone Zaza, Simone Edera and Armando Izzo are sidelined alongside Leicester City loanee Dennis Praet and star forward Andrea Belotti.
In the absence of the latter, Antonio Sanabria should continue to lead the line, while winger Marko Pjaca will be pushing for a starting spot after finding the net off the bench in each of the last two games.
Former Chelsea man Ola Aina will likely continue to deputise as a makeshift left wing-back in Il Toro's 3-4-3 system.
Venezia possible starting lineup:
Maenpaa; Mazzocchi, Caldara, Ceccaroni, Schnegg; Crnigoj, Vacca, Busio; Johnsen, Henry, Aramu
Torino possible starting lineup:
Milinkovic-Savic; Djidji, Bremer, Rodriguez; Singo, Pobega, Mandragora, Aina; Pjaca, Sanabria, Brekalo
We say: Venezia 0-2 Torino
While Venezia showed impressive resilience to hold AC Milan for the majority of the game last time out, they were ultimately outclassed, and we see a similar outcome happening on Monday.
Given the gulf in class between the sides, along with Torino's form and desire to bounce back from conceding a late equaliser last time out, we expect the visitors to leave with another victory.
Top tip
Sam Varley
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 40.36%. A win for Torino had a probability of 31.26% and a draw had a probability of 28.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Venezia win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.61%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.13%) and 2-0 (7.76%). The likeliest Torino win was 0-1 (10.73%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.2%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 13.2% likelihood.
