With their own stadium, recent stability and restrained transfer policy, forward-looking Juventus are the club who have best adapted to the harsh new financial realities of Serie A.
Lowly Palermo, on the other hand, have been mired in chaos, firing and hiring coaches at embarrassing speed on the whim of their eccentric president Maurizio Zamparini.
Antonio Conte's side have not quite matched the consistency of last season, when they completed the championship without losing a game, but with 25 wins and only four defeats in 34 outings, they are quite clearly a cut above the rest.
Juventus, who have won their last seven league matches, have managed to keep the core of last season's side intact while 20-year-old midfielder Paul Pogba has been an impressive addition to the team since he was signed from Manchester United.
As last season, their new, compact and raucous stadium, nearly always full, is a stark contrast to the wind-swept rows of empty seats in some of Serie A's over-sized and run-down publicly owned arenas.
Napoli's challenge effectively ended at the start of March when they could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Juventus during a rare dry spell for forward Edinson Cavani, the league's leading scorer with 23 goals.
"We've had a great season, with only a few bad games, but Juventus have done better," Napoli forward Marek Hamsik said in an interview with Sky Sports Italia.
"To make that jump in quality, we have to avoid messing up games the way we did against Sampdoria, Torino and Bologna."
Incredibly, Sannino's return proved a success and Palermo are unbeaten in their last five games, enabling them to creep out of the relegation zone thanks to their head-to-head record against Genoa who are level with them on points.
Napoli look almost certain to take second place and Serie A's only other direct place in the Champions League group stage, needing six more points to make mathematically certain.
