Serie A Top Five, Round Seven: Ale-Alejandro Ale-Alejandro!
Juventus may have secured the most vital win of the season so far against Inter on Sunday, winning 2-1 at San Siro, but none of the Old Lady's stars make our top five in what was a tight affair.
Atalanta were the stars of the weekend, defeating Lecce 3-1 to go third in Serie A.
Like a fine wine, 31-year-old Gomez is getting better with age. He was pretty much unplayable against Lecce this weekend, with nearly all of Atalanta's attacking play being channelled through him in some way. He made a remarkable 43 passes in the final third, creating three 'big' goalscoring chances in the process. He put in no less than nine crosses into the box for team-mates, and recorded a deserved goal too, receiving a pass in behind from Zapata to fire a strike in off the post. If not for the Lecce keeper, he would have scored one of the goals of the season, too, as he was denied a second after a magnificent, slaloming run.
If not for the exploits of his team-mate, Gomez, Gosens would be a shoe-in for the number one spot, as he set up the opener for Zapata and scored a goal of his own in the aforementioned Atalanta win over Lecce. To make it 1-0, he displayed superb determination to sprint down the left and squeeze out a tight pass into the area for the Colombian to score. Gosen's goal ultimately wrapped up the win for the Dea as he exchanged a give-and-go with Josip Ilicic to run through to the edge of the area and stab a finish with his toe into the bottom corner for the third.
Lazio are currently sixth in Serie A, but without the goals of Immobile who knows where they'd be languishing. The Italian striker was once again their saviour this weekend as he scored two in the 2-2 draw away to Bologna. Twice the visitors had to come from behind, but were able to after Immobile first caught out the goalkeeper with a snapshot finish into the near corner from the left of the box, and then through another neat strike from their centre-forward after he ghosted into the penalty area beyond the Bologna defence. He is now top goalscorer in Serie A.
Back to Atalanta now, and Zapata is fourth in our list of best performers after he scored and assisted a goal versus Lecce. His opener broke the deadlock for the hosts 35 minutes in when he received a pass from Gosens inside the box, allowed it to come across his body, before firing a finish into the right corner past the keeper. His hold-up play allowed Atalanta to score their third, as he took the ball into feet before laying into the path of Gomez for the Argentine to make it 3-0.
The Serbian is gaining quite the reputation for his performances the Viola, but more in a defensive capacity. He showed what he can do at the other end of the pitch against Udinese as he was the only scorer in a 1-0 victory for the home side at the Artemio Franchi. It was simple enough, too, as he glanced a brilliant header into the corner from a corner-kick. He was solid in his normal duties also, making 10 ball recoveries, two interceptions, and three clearances.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
In the battle for European places, Napoli took on Torino to play out a 0-0 stalemate. A bright spark for the Partenopei was the performance of Giovanni Di Lorenzo (7.8), who made six ball recoveries, five interceptions, and two clearances. He should have had an assist too after an excellent cross into the box for Fernando Llorente, only for the big Spaniard to head wide.
ROUND TO FORGET
Another weekend, another Genoa defender sabotaging their side's chances. Last week, Jawal El Yamiq was the guilty party, and he is followed by team-mate Davide Biraschi (4.7). Ten minutes into the second-half, a VAR decision ruled that he'd handled inside the box, and as it prevented a goalscoring opportunity, he was sent off for the offence as Milan scored the subsequent penalty. Before that, he made zero tackles, and won zero aerial duels anyway.