Serie A resumes this weekend following a three-month lay-off, with Atalanta hosting Sassuolo at the Gewiss Stadium on Sunday.
It’s been another successful season for Atalanta. The Bergamo outfit resumes the 2019/20 campaign in 4th place – three points clear of 5th-place Roma with a game in hand.
Qualification for next season’s Champions League is looking likely for Gian Piero Gasperini’s side, but the six-point point gap between them and 3rd-place Inter suggests that Atalanta won’t finish any higher than 4th.
Still, Atalanta are by far the division’s highest scorers this season. Gasperini’s men have netted 70 goals in 25 league games at an average of 2.8 goals per game.
Atalanta have scored ten more goals more than their nearest challenger Lazio and a whopping 20 more than league leaders Juventus.
The Bergamo club are unbeaten in their previous five league games and have only lost one of their last nine. In fact, Atalanta claimed seven-goal victories over Torino (7-0) and Lecce (7-2) leading up to the break.
Sassuolo were also enjoying a promising run before the campaign was put on hold. The Modena outfit only lost one of their six games leading up to the break.
Victories over Torino, Roma, SPAL, and Brescia – along with a draw against Sampdoria – mean Sassuolo will resume the season in 11th.
Sassuolo haven’t had any problems finding the back of the net this season. Indeed, they have scored more goals than the four teams directly above them in the table.
However, there are a number of sides below them with a better defensive record, so Sassuolo will need to tighten things up at the back in order to move up the standings in the coming weeks.
Atalanta thrashed Sassuolo 4-1 back in September, extending their winning run in this fixture to six games.
In fact, the overall aggregate score from the past six meetings between these two teams stands at 20-6 in favour of Atalanta.
Given the respective record of the two sides, a similar scoreline is expected this time around. Atalanta are frightening going forward, while Sassuolo have had their problems defensively.
• #Atalanta: *Domenica torna in campo*- Io: 🤩😏It’s game week... again! 😃#GoAtalantaGo ⚫️🔵 pic.twitter.com/2nQfKyTAlX— Atalanta B.C. (@Atalanta_BC) June 15, 2020
• #Atalanta: *Domenica torna in campo*- Io: 🤩😏It’s game week... again! 😃#GoAtalantaGo ⚫️🔵 pic.twitter.com/2nQfKyTAlX
Forebet predicts that Atalanta will claim another high-scoring victory over Sassuolo. The home side are expected to score over 2.5 goals, with the away team also getting on the scoresheet.