Although Andriy Shevchenko was quick to praise his teammates following the 2-1 win at Lazio on Sunday, it would be fair to suggest that Milan may have lost at the Olimpico had he not been on the field of play. Although capital ‘keeper Angelo Peruzzi made some fine saves throughout, Shev’s brilliant brace handed his 10-man side three crucial points.

The Rossoneri certainly needed Shevchenko to return to form and he didn’t let them down. Jon Dahl Tomasson, Pippo Inzaghi and Hernan Crespo haven’t looked in great shape so far this term which only increased the pressure on the Ukrainian to deliver. He certainly did that and in some style.

His first goal may have resulted thanks to some slack Lazio defending but Shev impressively co-ordinated himself to blast the ball home. His second was even better as he skipped past two Lazio defenders to pick out the top-corner with a powerful strike. He proved to be the only real difference between the two sides in the Eternal City.

Shevchenko concluded the Week 4 scoring but the first strike of the weekend went to Bologna’s Mourad Meghni. Dubbed the ‘new Zidane’ on his arrival at the club four years ago, the 20-year-old finally illustrated why against Roma. He was surprisingly given a starting shirt and he repaid boss Carlo Mazzone with two goals of the highest quality.

The Frenchman was excellent throughout for the Rossoblu, as was Tomas Locatelli, against an unrecognisable Roma. The Giallorossi were simply awful at the Dall’Ara with Leandro Cufre, Marco Delvecchio and Antonio Cassano arguably the worst of a very bad bunch. No wonder Coach Rudi Voller, who quit after the game, admitted he was embarrassed by their display.

It was a different story for Parma boss Silvio Baldini, whose youngsters grabbed a point at Inter. Although all of the side did well, Domenico Morfeo proved just how important he will be to the team this season. The attacking midfielder was immense, rekindling memories of his time at Atalanta when the big clubs would regularly send scouts to watch his performances.

The Tardini outfit though were denied the three points by substitute Obafemi Martins. The Nigerian came on to score a brace after another ineffective performance from Christian Vieri. The Italian, who is clearly struggling for form, started alongside Adriano yet again but came off to the whistles of the home crowd. How many more chances is boss Roberto Mancini going to give him?

Other good individual displays over the weekend were offered by Gianluca Zambrotta of Juventus, in the 1-1 draw against a very organised Palermo outfit, and Lecce’s Guillermo Giacomazzi. Cagliari’s Mauro Esposito did his hopes of a first international call-up no damage with another goal.

Brescia’s Daniele Mannini also deserves a special mention but for all the wrong reasons. He decided to take advantage of Morgan De Sanctis’ injury to chip the ball into the empty net as the Udinese No 1 lay on the ground. Whatever happened to fair play?