“AvevAte dubbi?”, read the post on Sassuolo’s official X account after the Neroverdi clinched promotion on Sunday night.

The capital “A” was a nod to Serie A, but what mattered most was the underlying message.

“Did you have any doubts?”.

Sassuolo, for their part, never did. Their CEO Giovanni Carnevali made it clear as early as last May, when a home defeat against Cagliari sealed the Neroverdi‘s return to Serie B after 10 years.

“We’ll be back in Serie A at the earliest opportunity,” he vowed.

Less than 12 months later, Sassuolo and Carnevali have kept their word, returning to calcio‘s upper echelon at the first time of asking after steamrolling the competition over the past nine months.

The Neroverdi‘s 3-1 win away at Modena on Saturday in the Emilia-Romagna derby left them top of Serie B, nine points clear of second-placed Pisa and 15 clear of Spezia in third.

The Ligurians looked to have done enough to postpone Sassuolo’s party for another week as they took a two-goal lead away at Mantova, before Tommaso Maggioni wrote himself in the Neroverdi folklore with a 94th minute equaliser to kick off celebrations in Sassuolo.

Not even the torrential rain that hit Emilia-Romagna could dampen spirits in the city, where fans poured out in the streets to celebrate promotion back to Serie A.

The party, truth be told, had been a long time coming. Maggioni’s goal may have sealed promotion on Sunday evening, but it has always been a matter of when not if Sassuolo would return to Serie A.

The Neroverdi coasted to promotion with five games left, a record bettered only by Benevento, who secured their return to Serie A with seven matches to spare in the 2019-20 season, a Serie B record.

The Giallorossi finished top of the table with 86 points and an 18-point gap over second-placed Crotone after winning 26 of their games and losing just four, while scoring 67 times in the process.

Sassuolo could finish on 90 points this season, and need just three more wins in their remaining five games to match Benevento’s tally and have already scored six more goals than Gli Stregoni did under Filippo Inzaghi five seasons ago.

Inzaghi, of course, is now in charge of Pisa and there is a beautiful kind of circularity in the fact the Tuscans look set to join Fabio Grosso’s men in Serie A next season.

But brilliant as the Nerazzurri have been this season, not even they could keep up with the relentless pace Sassuolo have set this term.

When Grosso led Frosinone to Serie A two seasons ago, his side went top of the table after 10 matches and never looked back, finishing seven points clear of Genoa.

The parallels with the current campaign are obvious. After a relatively slow start, Sassuolo hit the front at the end of November and like a golfer who birdies every hole on the final round of a major left their rivals floundering in their wake.

After a surprise 4-1 defeat at home to Cremonese at the end of August, the Neroverdi stamped their authority on the promotion race by winning 12 of their next 14 games – and drawing the other two – before losing to Pisa on Boxing Day.

The defeat at the Arena Garibaldi checked their momentum but only temporarily, as Sassuolo won six of their next seven games, the only blip coming in the form of a loss against Spezia.

“We had a bit of a tough start to the season, but we then found the right balance within the team to get to the top,” Grosso said on Sunday.

“Everyone in the squad played their part right from the beginning, and that was our key strength.

“I’m fortunate to be at a serious, great, and loyal club that has given me the ideal conditions to do my job. I want to thank all the people who have worked alongside me, and of course the players, who are the stars of this amazing ride.”

Such is the quality and depth of their squad, the Neroverdi – as rival managers have often remarked this season – are effectively a Serie A side temporarily plying their trade one step further down calcio‘s pyramid.

But the fact Sassuolo were expected to return to Serie A at the first time of asking, doesn’t diminish the impressive nature of their current campaign.

With 75 points in 33 games at an average of 2.27 points per match, Grosso’s men are statistically the best team across the second tier of the top five big European leagues.

In England, Championship leaders Leeds and Burnley have both amassed 88 points but across 42 matches, 12 more than Sassuolo, at an average of 2.09 points per game, while Lorient are top of Ligue 2 in France with 64 points after 30 rounds at a clip of 2.13 points per 90 minutes.

The pace drops considerably in Germany and Spain. Hamburg top the Bundesliga 2 with 52 points after 29 matches at an average of 1.79 points per game, while Elche lead in the Segunda División with 66 points after 35 games, at an average of 1.88 points per match.

Sassuolo’s relentless pace is reflected by their gap over their closest rivals Pisa which, at nine points, is the widest out of any division across the second tier of the top five big European leagues.

Sassuolo’s tally of 73 goals is already a Serie B record for the division since it returned to 20 teams in 2019. Empoli were the last team to score more in a league season, plundering in 88 goals in the 2017-18 campaign but over 42 games.

To find the only team to score more than Sassuolo in a 20-team Serie B campaign, one has to go back four decades when AC Milan scored 77 en route to winning promotion in 1982-83 under Ilario Castagner.

With five fixtures left, the smart money is on the Neroverdi to obliterate that record. Attacking football has been at the core of Sassuolo’s ruthless march towards promotion and credit must go to Grosso for the way he has managed the resources at his disposal.

It is one thing to have the best squad in the division, quite another to maximise their talents. But the numbers speak for themselves. Armand Lauriente has arguably been the best player in the division this season, scoring 15 goals after registering only five last term and vindicated Grosso’s desire to keep him at the club in the summer.

On the opposite wing, Nicholas Pierini netted 10, while Samuele Mulattieri bagged nine of his own and Kristian Thorstvedt and Luca Moro have seven each.

And then there is Domenico Berardi, whose 12 assists are the most of any player in Serie B this season. Convincing the Italy international to remain in Emilia in the summer was arguably as big a coup as appointing Grosso, who has now promotion at the first time of asking twice in a row.

The true watershed moment in Sassuolo’s season was the comeback of their No10 in October.

After seven months sidelined with an Achilles injury, Berardi marked his Serie B return with an assist against Cittadella, then set up two more in the next game against Brescia, and then capped it off with a goal against Mantova. He never looked back and neither did Sassuolo.

Berardi, of course, opened the scoring in the derby against Modena on Saturday, before Lauriente and Moro sealed a 3-1 win.

After 12 months, Sassuolo are back in a Serie A, a division they called home for a decade. Sometimes, as Grosso pointed out, you have to hit rock bottom to start over.

Doubters need not apply.