Sunday evening provides us with yet another tasty clash in the Italian top flight when 8th placed Atalanta play host to 4th placed Roma with a valuable three points up for grabs for both teams as they look to enhance their claims for a possible top four spot in Serie A.
Despite gaining a great result last time out in Serie A by holding high-flying Juventus to a 1-1 draw away from home at the Allianz Stadium, this means that Atalanta have managed to register just one win out of their last five matches which has seen the hosts drop down the table to 8th place.
Atalanta’s one success in recent weeks came in the form of a 3-0 home win over Fiorentina but a 2-0 loss at home to Hellas Verona and being held to draws by Inter Milan and Spezia (the latter particularly disappointing), Sunday’s hosts have lost ground as a result.
Form and results at home have been inconsistent to date as Atalanta have won two, drawn one and lost two but three of their five home matches to date have seen over 2.5 goals while the hosts are also susceptible to conceding too, conceding in 11 of their last 15 matches at home.
Roma rather predictably secured all three points in Thursday night’s 3-1 win over hapless Torino at their Stadio Olimpico.
This not only handed them back-to-back wins in Serie A but also enabled the visitors to replace Napoli into 4th place ahead of this weekend’s action in the Italian top flight.
The visitors have lost just twice throughout this season to date and have picked up seven wins from their 12 matches played so far in this campaign which has been the difference between themselves and their hosts, Atalanta.
Interestingly, nine of Roma’s 12 matches have resulted in over 2.5 goals being scored with six of these nine also seeing both teams score, while seven of their last 11 matches away from home have also resulted in high-scoring games and both teams hitting the back of the net.
In addition, four of the previous five meetings between these two clubs have seen both teams score and over 2.5 goals in total and with both teams pushing for a top four spot, further goals look likely on Sunday evening.