Brasileiro has taken off! Who to follow this summer?

In South America the samba beats are playing and Brasileiro has taken off! Two rounds of games have played out in the Brazilian Serie A and no team has managed to win both their games. With so much talent and flair on display, who are the teams to follow this summer?

Corinthians are the title-holders and strong favourites for the division after finishing the 2015 season with 81 points. They scored the most goals and conceded the least last season - statistics that demonstrated their superiority in all areas. They also kept clean sheets in 45% of their games and scored an average of 2.13 points a game losing just 5 times. Manager Adenor Leonardo Bacchi (also known as Tite) won the Brasileiro Best Manager award for steering his team to the championship.

Tite has seen his title-winning side picked apart by wealthy Chinese clubs with 2015 Brasileiro Best Player Renato Augusto and fellow midfielder Ralf leaving for Beijing Guoan, midfielder Jadson departing for Tianjin Quanjian and centre-back Gil going to Shandong Luneng. Club top-scorer Vagner Love also joined the exodus heading to Monaco. This might explain why 'The People's Club' have started the 2016 campaign poorly. A stalemate at home to Gremio and a 3-2 defeat away to Vitoria have left them in 16th place with a solitary point. Tite will be hoping new signings like winger Giovanni Augusto and Andre (centre-forward) will help the side back to winning ways.

Newly promoted Santa Cruz find themselves top of the table after returning to Serie A for the first time in 10 years. 'The Coral Snake' have a spring in their step, beating promoted Vitoria 4-1 at the Estadio do Arruda and drawing 2-2 away to Fluminense. Veteran Brazilian striker Grafite leads the scoring charts with four goals already. If they can maintain this form, Santa Cruz could do a lot more than just stay up this season.

Santos are one of the most successful football clubs in Brazil. Last season they finished a disappointing 7th in the league. Despite this, the team from Sao Paulo had the second best home record in the league last season, finishing with 15 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat at the Estadio Urbano Caldeira. This season they have maintained their home record by beating Coritiba 2-1, but defeat away to Atletico Mineiro has positioned them in 11th place. Manager Dorival Junior needs to find a formula for picking up points on the road if Santos are to improve in this campaign. He will rely on 2015 Brasileiro Top Scorer Ricardo Oliveiro providing the firepower. The 36-year old scored 20 league goals last term.

Last year's runners-up, Atletico Mineiro will be looking to go one better this time around. They have started well, beating Santos 1-0 at home and drawing 1-1 away to Atleticio PR. They will be buoyed by Argentine centre-forward Lucas Pratto who was voted the Best Foreign Player in the league last season. The 27-year-old scored 13 times in the last campaign and is the club's highest ever foreign goalscorer. The club known as the 'Rooster' are are an extremely popular bet for an outside shot at the title.

Gremio finished a point behind Atletico Mineiro in third position last term. Like Santos, they also had a great home record with 14 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats at the Arena do Gremio. They have 4 points so far this season after beating Falmengo 1-0 at home and drawing 0-0 away to holders Corinthians. Look out for 23-year-old forward Luan who was voted into last year's Team of the Season and is sure to frighten defences again this campaign.