Como’s first home league game came in round four, and both goals were scored by defenders

Como played three Serie A rounds before they were allowed home. The Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia was being rebuilt to UEFA standards over the summer, so the opening month was spent on the road, and the ground’s return to service on Thursday was a 4-1 win over RB Leipzig in the club’s first European match in 119 years.

Four days later they were back at the same ground for something far less glamorous, and against a Parma side with one point from three games it still took until the 83rd minute to be safe. Como won 2-1. They are third in Serie A on 10 points, unbeaten, two behind Roma and Inter.

Both goals came from defenders

Jacobo Ramón opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, tapping in at the back post after Nico Paz’s corner was not cleared. Kaiki, the Brazil left-back signed from Cruzeiro in July, bundled in the second from eight yards in the 83rd after a scramble that Parma’s defence could not clear either.

Cesc Fabregas was asked about that afterwards and gave an answer that told you where he has been looking for ideas.

“In modern football, it is very important to have defenders who score goals,” the Como manager said. “Arsenal won the Premier League largely with goals from defenders and on set plays. If we add this to our capabilities, then it’s an advantage.”

Arsenal won the title in May with the best defence in the division, 27 goals conceded in 38 matches. Fabregas spent eight years at the club as a player, from 2003 to 2011. He is now trying to import the least romantic part of Mikel Arteta’s work into a squad he took up from Serie B in 2024.

Parma scored in the 92nd and are 17th

Parma’s consolation came from David Romero, sweeping in Pontus Almqvist’s cutback two minutes into stoppage time. It was their second goal of the Serie A season. Four matches, two goals, one point, 17th.

They had chances to make the night harder than that. Simone Lontani headed inches over on the stroke of half-time, and Romero had already been denied from close range in the 66th minute before Robert Sánchez saved the rebound off Sascha Britschgi’s handball.

Fabregas was honest about the shape of it. “When you have 31 shots on goal and score only once, you know that the opponents will change something to shore up their defence, and that you risk conceding, which we eventually did,” he said.

Kean starts, and Fabregas is not rushing him

Moise Kean made his first start for Como, alongside a full debut for the Chelsea-owned goalkeeper Robert Sánchez. Kean arrived from Fiorentina on deadline day in a loan-plus-obligation deal worth up to 40 million euros, which makes him the most expensive thing on a pitch at a ground that seats 12,379.

Fabregas is treating him as a project rather than a fix. “Douvikas is not the same player now as when he first arrived, so the same will be true of Kean,” he said. “This team asks different things to what he was accustomed to, so it takes time and hard work, but I am very pleased to have two great strikers.”

Como have won at Napoli, beaten Leipzig and taken 10 points from four league games, the last of them on a night Fabregas admitted his players were tired. They go to Frosinone on Sunday. Whatever happens there, the hard part of their September is behind them, and they spent it playing everywhere except home.

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