Serie A hot takes: AC Milan's gem shines and that could mean more competition for USMNT's Christian Pulisic

The 2026-2027 Serie A season is finally back, and after the first weekend of action, it's already time to reflect on what happened and especially what we can expect ahead of the second matchday that will take place later this week. Inter won convincingly on Saturday, as the 2025–2026 Serie A champions cruised to a dominant 4–1 victory over Monza. Their title rivals responded on Sunday, with AC Milan beating Torino 2–1 and Juventus securing a narrow 1–0 win away at Frosinone, while Napoli won 2-0 at Genoa.

Now, time for some hot takes: The biggest surprise of the first weekend of Serie A action was AC Milan wonderkid Alphadjo Cisse, who scored the opening goal of the 2-1 win against Torino on Sunday. The Italian winger, who will turn 20 in October, is highly valued by his coach Ruben Amorim, who praised him ahead of the match. The Portuguese coach, who replaced Massimiliano Allegri on the bench of the Italian giants this summer, handed Cisse his first Serie A start in his first official league match in charge.

Rafael Leao is currently sidelined with an injury and is expected to leave the Rossoneri before transfer deadline day, while American Christian Pulisic is still working his way back to full fitness. It's an opportunity for Cisse to take full advantage and cement himself as the starter on the left wing. Cisse proved to be at the level asked by Amorim, and he's expected to start again on Friday when AC Milan will host Venezia.

Leao and Pulisic can wait, it's now time for Cisse to shine. As for the American, who suffered a microfracture in his leg in the USMNT's last game at the World Cup, a 4-1 loss to Belgium, his versatility means he should see the field plenty, but a lot will depend on how Amorim evolves at the club. But Cisse's surge isn't great news for Leao, but it shouldn't impact Pulisic all that much when he's healthy.

MILAN BREAKS THE DEADLOCK 🔓Alphadjo Cissè buries the volley from Adrien Rabiot to score his first shirt in the ⚫️🔴Steam Serie A on @paramountplus 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/CYeuYoew5m Inter started off well their debut Serie A game of the season as the 2025-2026 Scudetto winners won 4-1 against Monza at San Siro on Saturday. Hakan Calhanoglu, Francesco Pio Esposito, Yann Bisseck and Piotr Zielinski all scored in the opening game but the MVP of the match was Andy Diouf, the French winger who delivered two key assists against Monza. His performances are great news for Nerazzurri coach Cristian Chivu, who decided to deploy him as a right wing-back in Inter's 3-5-2 system last season, despite the player arriving from Lens in the summer of 2025 as a central midfielder.

Last year, when Denzel Dumfries was injured, Chivu tried him in that position and improved drastically in the second part of the season, despite having said multiple times that he was not particularly keen on playing on the right wing. When the Nerazzurri sold Dumfries to Real Madrid this summer, Inter decided to sign Djed Spence from Tottenham but consider Diouf a potential starter in that position as well. In the end, Chivu was not wrong.