Roma have made the strongest start to the 2026-27 Serie A season and top the table after matchday one thanks to their 4-0 win over Fiorentina.
It’s been more than two decades since Roma have gone on to win the Scudetto, with their last league title coming in 2000-01. There have been plenty of runner-up finishes and close calls since then, but when have Roma actually been top of the table?
Here are all the times it has happened from the 2001-02 campaign onwards.
Season: 2001-02
Matchdays: 14, 17-18, 20-22, 24, 26-27
Biggest lead: 1 point
Final position: 2nd
Roma’s title defence didn’t start in the best way, as they failed to win any of their first three league games, which put them as low as 12th by mid-September. However, Fabio Capello’s side began to rally.
A 24-game unbeaten run followed in the league, which saw Roma rise to the summit on several occasions. After the famous 5-1 win over Lazio on matchday 26, Roma rose to the top of the table and stayed there after beating Atalanta the following week.
But a loss to Inter ended the unbeaten run and saw Roma overtaken. Ultimately, they conceded the title to Juventus and finished second by an agonising one point.
Season: 2003-04
Matchdays: 2-4, 11-17
Biggest lead: 3 points
Final position: 2nd
After finishing 8th in the 2002-03 season, Roma were more competitive in 2003-04, which turned out to be Capello’s last campaign with the club.
A strong start saw Roma go top after the second round of matches thanks to a 5-0 win over Brescia, but a draw with Siena on matchday five caused a slip to third.
By the end of November, Roma were top again as they picked up steam with a 3-1 win over Lecce, their fourth win in a row. They topped the table at Christmas by three points and stayed there until late January, when a draw with Udinese allowed AC Milan (who had moved level with Roma by inflicting defeat on Capello’s side in January) the room to overtake.
Milan went on to win the title with an 11-point margin over runners-up Roma.
Season: 2006-07
Matchdays: 2, 5
Biggest lead: 0 points (goal difference)
Final position: 2nd
In the wake of the Calciopoli scandal but also on the back of Italy’s World Cup triumph, the 2006-07 Serie A season had a different feel to it.
Luciano Spalletti, in his second season as Roma coach, was starting to get to grips with his squad and led them to four wins from their first five games.
Roma never dropped out of the top four that season and spent the entire second half of the campaign in second place, where they ultimately finished 22 points behind Inter.
Season: 2007-08
Matchdays: 3-5
Biggest lead: 0 points (goal difference)
Final position: 2nd
Roma ran Inter closer the following season, finishing just three points off top spot by the end of the campaign.
However, their only time at the top of the table that season was in September, thanks to a five-game unbeaten run from the outset.
A 4-1 loss to Inter knocked Roma off the perch, although they would once again soar in second place for the whole second half of the season.
Season: 2009-10
Matchdays: 33-34
Biggest lead: 1 point
Final position: 2nd
The latest into a season Roma have been top since their last Scudetto, the 2009-10 campaign could quite easily have ended in glory.
Despite a turbulent start that led to the departure of Spalletti, Roma under Claudio Ranieri established themselves as the main challengers to the Inter side that would go on to win the treble.
A win over Atalanta in April put Roma top with five games left and they held their nerve to win the derby the following week.
However, a shock 2-1 defeat to Sampdoria followed, which effectively put the nail in the coffin of Roma’s title hopes. They won their last three games of the season, but still finished two points behind Inter.
Season: 2013-14
Matchdays: 4-12
Biggest lead: 5 points
Final position: 2nd
The beginning of Rudi Garcia’s Roma reign was breath-taking, as the new coach picked up 10 wins on the bounce at the start of his debut season.
The fourth win, which was in the derby, put Roma top and they stayed there for two months. However, the 10 wins soon gave wins to four draws in a row.
While it was still a lengthy unbeaten start, it gave Juventus a chance to catch up by the time Roma drew a blank with Cagliari on matchday 13.
Juventus never looked back and went on to break the 100-point barrier, leaving Roma in the dust by 17 points.
It wouldn’t be for another 12 years, with Gasperini now at the helm, that Roma would find themselves top of Serie A the same amount of games into a new season.
Season: 2014-15
Matchdays: 3
Biggest lead: 0 points (goal difference)
Final position: 2nd
Roma arguably gained more weight of expectation ahead of Garcia’s second season and they started strongly again, with five wins on the bounce.
However, Juventus did as well, so Roma only occupied top spot on goal difference after one of those rounds of fixtures – the third, thanks to their +5 differential being one superior to the Old Lady’s.
Roma remained in the top three all season, securing Champions League qualification with a derby win on the penultimate round. But by that point, Juve had already raced away with the title, going on to finish with a 17-point lead.
Season: 2015-16
Matchdays: 9-10
Biggest lead: 2 points
Final position: 3rd
There was no such winning run at the start of Garcia’s third season, as they drew on the opening day, but they still worked their way up to top spot by late October with a win over Fiorentina.
A few days later, Udinese were dispatched to make it five wins in a row, but Roma lost to Inter in their next fixture to concede first place to Fiorentina. (Inter also leapfrogged Roma thanks to the result).
There was a derby win to enjoy soon after, but the wheels began to fall off for Roma and Garcia lost his job in January as the stagnation set in. Spalletti came back to inspire the team to a third-place finish.
But considering Juventus, the eventual champions, were in the bottom half at the last point Roma had topped the table that season, it had to be seen as a missed opportunity on the whole.
Season: 2016-17
Matchdays: 1
Biggest lead: 0 points (goal difference)
Final position: 2nd
Roma claimed a club-record points tally in the 2016-17 Serie A season, but remarkably not only finished as runners up, but weren’t even top beyond the first matchday.
Boasting one of their strongest squads in recent memory, Roma started Spalletti’s only full season of his second spell in charge with a 4-0 win over Udinese.
But a draw with Cagliari on matchday two prompted a slip to fourth. It was the lowest Roma would be all season; in fact, they stayed second from the middle of October onwards.
Eventually accumulating an impressive 87 points, Roma trailed Juventus by four points by the end of the season.
Season: 2021-22
Matchdays: 3
Biggest lead: 0 points (goal difference)
Final position: 6th
After a few years out of the Champions League, Roma restored some optimism for the future with the appointment of José Mourinho in the summer of 2021.
Roma were starting from the ground up, playing in the Europa Conference League at the start of the season. They picked up some traction and climbed to first place after winning their first three games in Serie A.
But results soon became varied and Roma fell out of the top four in November, not to return that season. Their final position was 6th, 23 points behind champions Milan.
Instead, the attention shifted to the Conference League, which Roma went on to win – leaving a positive memory after all of Mourinho’s first season.
Season: 2025-26
Matchdays: 12
Biggest lead: 2 points
Final position: 3rd
Roma enjoyed a positive start to the Gian Piero Gasperini era and, by November, found themselves in a situation they hadn’t been in for over a decade.
After beating Cremonese and then seeing Inter lose to AC Milan, Roma became the outright leaders in Serie A after 12 games of the 2025-26 season.
They hadn’t been top of the table that far into the season since the 2013-14 campaign, but a loss to Napoli the following week brought them all the way back down to fourth.
Roma rallied late in the season to break into the top four, eventually finishing third (14 points off champions Inter) by virtue of a five-game winning streak at the end of the season.
This article was originally published on 25th November, 2025 and has been updated since.
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