Without any doubts, Milan were the indisputable leaders of Serie A during the first half of the season. After all, with coach Pioli still in charge, they managed to confirm all the good done since the start of the Covid outbreak in the past campaign.
In fact, up until week 15, they were just perfect and undefeatable, despite an already long and tiring European campaign and scored at least 2 goals against all opponents. In weeks 16 and 19, though, they sustained the first defeats of the season, both at home, to Juventus and Atalanta respectively. Against the Goddess, in particular, they failed to score for the first time.
By that time, Ibrahimovic, their leader, was injured and Milan would be suffering a few injury crises until the end of the campaign.
However, it is only in week 22, following an unexpected defeat to Spezia, that they fell off the top, being overtaken by Inter, who also triumphed in the derby in the following game.
After that, Milan never made it back to the top while the gap to Inter increased weekly. In particular, they underperformed at home, losing to Napoli and Sassuolo and drawing with Udinese, Sampdoria and Cagliari.
Having fallen out of the top 4 in week 33, the Devils did not collapse and managed to achieve qualification to the Champions League, and a last-gasp second place, thanks to 4 wins in the last 5.
Ibrahimovic was fundamental until February but, after that, he scored only 1 out of his 15 goals and played too little. Kessié undoubtedly was the man of the season as he played 37 games, fighting everywhere, and scored 13 goals, mostly penalties. Kjaer and Tomori did well at the back while Hernandez was too inconsistent and Romagnoli was plain disappointing. Rebic and Calhanoglu also left positive marks in the season.
With Pioli still in charge but with some of the stars quitting (Donnarumma) or just too old (Ibrahimovic) it has to be seen whether Milan will be able to fight for the Scudetto in the next campaign.
