Manager once mocked for a throwaway line has his team shooting for the Champions League and admirers on his tail

The calendar showed 1 April, but there was nothing fishy about a league table that showed Bologna in fourth place. Thiago Motta’s side have held that spot for more than a month, even if it was striking to see after Monday’s 3-0 win over Salernitana that they had closed to within two points of Juventus in third. The gap was 20 at the start of February.

April Fools’s Day in Italy is known as Pesce d’Aprile – April Fish. The tradition is for children to stick paper pesci on people’s backs and see how long they go unnoticed, but journalists have been known to mark the occasion with made-up stories, as happens in other countries. Bologna supporters must hope the headlines now linking their manager to Juventus turn out to be fake news.

The Serie A leaders showed their freedom and flexibility against Bologna, and their ability to score goals that are beyond any other team

Marco Parolo was only joking when he posed the question to Simone Inzaghi last December. “Back when you were coaching me at Lazio you offered us players a dinner for the first goal assisted by one wing-back and scored by the other,” said the former Italy international during a TV interview after Inter’s home win over Udinese. “What are you trying for now? A goal set up by the defender from one side of your back three and scored by the one on the other side?”

The translation is a little unwieldy. In Italian, Parolo was contrasting “un gol da quinto a quinto” with one “da terzo a terzo”, but English does not offer an equivalent for this shorthand reference to footballers’ positions as “fifths” and “thirds”. The sentiment was what mattered. Parolo was marvelling like the rest of us at the fluidity of an Inter side in which it can seem like every player bar the goalkeeper has permission to join the attack.