In a round where the top clubs mostly had troubles toppling their respective opponents, the most impressive team was surely Atalanta, which manhandled Frosinone on Monday night. The Orobici and Empoli were the only two sides to score multiple goals while keeping a clean sheet.
Gian Piero Gasperini will not have Josip Ilicic for a while, so he opted for the lineup he has been fielding in Europa League with limited rotation. Berat Djimsiti played over both Gianluca Mancini and José-Luis Palomino in the defence and Musa Barrow won the duel with Duvan Zapata up front, with Mario Pasalic in the hole.
Thanks to the multiple games they played early in the summer, the Nerazzurri are clearly in superior shape and they were no match for Frosinone, which finished assembling the roster just a couple of days ago. The Ciociari had the first big chance of the game, with Camillo Ciano slipping past the back-line on a quick counter, but his daisy-cutter smacked the post after being tipped by Pierluigi Gollini.
The Alejando Gomez show started at the 14th minute, when the Orobici stole the ball in the final third thanks to a well-executed high pressure and Rafael Toloi was improbably in perfect position to set up the winger with a through ball and the attacker finished with aplomb in front of Marco Sportiello. The same tandem combined again few minutes later, but the effort of the Argentinian went wide this time. A Ciano free kick died on the side netting moments before half time and that was the last time the guests were seen attacking.
At the 48th minute, Papu cut back from the left flank and picked out Hans Hateboer on the far post with a superb cross, which the fullback volleyed into the net. Gomez had another assist fifteen minutes later, this time finding Mario Pasalic for a tap in after giving Bartosz Salamon a headache on the left portion of the box. The Polish centre-back played an unlucky part in the final goal as well, deflecting a Gomez shot from the edge of the box, putting out of reach for his goalie.
The Atalanta captain was hands down the best player in Serie A this week thanks to his 14 points, Hateboer was second with nine. Two of the centre-backs, Toloi and Andrea Masiello, both weirdly picked up and assists, thus garnering 7 points, same as Pierluigi Gollini. Mario Pasalic amassed six, Timothy Castagne and Berat Djimsiti five for the clean sheet and the rest of the midfielders two.
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