Salernitana play host to Monza on Sunday afternoon looking to end their three-match losing streak in Serie A.
At a time when the home side sit four points clear of the relegation zone, Monza are 11th in the standings, despite seeing their unbeaten streak brought to an end last time out.
Match preview
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Having lost their opening five matches of the season, Monza had to scale back their expectations upon promotion to Serie A, but I Biancorossi have been a different side under Raffaele Palladino.
Although Monza will still be wary of a relegation battle, they now sit a remarkable 12 points clear of the bottom three with 15 matches remaining.
Sixteen points were recorded from an eight-match period before they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of AC Milan last weekend.
While that has the potential to derail Monza, this is a team who has overcome Juventus home and away this campaign and have twice bounced back from losing streaks lasting more than three fixtures.
Monza are also on a three-game winning run away from home, something that will not go unnoticed by their opponents on Sunday.
A strong October ensured that Salernitana were able to move away from trouble ahead of the World Cup, but they have not come close to replicating that effort ever since.
As a result, Paulo Sousa has been handed the reins, tasked with trying to improve on the one win in 10 games that came during the final months of Davide Nicola's tenure.
Sousa began with a 2-0 home defeat to Lazio last Sunday, the visitors prevailing through two Ciro Immobile goals from the hour-mark onwards.
Salernitana now welcome Monza to Stadio Arechi having not emerged victorious at home since they edged out Spezia on October 22.
Team News
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Salernitana will have to make do without Dylan Bronn after the defender was dismissed for two yellow cards versus Lazio.
Matteo Lovato appears likely to come into the back three, while Tonny Vilhena's place is at risk having been withdrawn at half time last time out.
Grigoris Kastanos, Diego Valencia and Erik Botheim are all pushing for an opportunity in the final third.
As for Monza, Samuele Birindelli misses out with the right wing-back having collected his fifth yellow card of the season in the defeat to Milan.
Patrick Ciurria is expected to switch flanks to fill that void, with youngster Franco Carboni possibly making his first start for the club on the left.
Stefano Sensi could come back into contention for a start after the former Inter Milan playmaker only started on the substitutes' bench versus his ex-club's fierce rivals.
Salernitana possible starting lineup:
Sepe; Lovato, Daniliuc, Pirola; Candreva, Coulibaly, Crnigoj, Bradaric; Bonazzoli, Valencia; Piatek
Monza possible starting lineup:
Gregorio; Santos, Mari, Izzo; Ciurria, Rovella, Pessina, Carboni; Caprari, Mota; Petagna
We say: Salernitana 1-2 Monza
With Monza having lost some momentum in their last game, Salernitana will fancy their chances of getting back on track. Nevertheless, the visitors have the quality and experience to shake off that disappointment and battle their way to another three points.
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Darren Plant
