Serie A round-up: Atalanta finally find grove in huge Chievo win

After a nightmare start to the season, Atalanta will hope Sunday’s 5-1 win away to Chievo will kickstart their campaign. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side had only scored nine goals in eight league games prior to their trip to the Marc’Antonio Bentegodi stadium.

Atalanta were 2-0 up inside 30 minutes before Chievo defender Federico Barba picked up his second yellow card just before half-time to help Atalanta on their way to a comfortable three points. Josip Ilicic made the most of his first league start of the season to net a 60-minute hat-trick and a WhoScored rating of 10 in the process.

The 30-year-old scored three goals from four shots, created three goalscoring opportunities and drew three fouls to finish as the star man in Serie A this past weekend. Atalanta team-mates Robin Gosens and Remo Freuler complete the top three.

Freuler provided two assists from three chances created and completed 90.4% of his passes to help garner a WhoScored rating of 8.73. The 26-year-old also completed six tackles and interceptions combined and had 112 touches of the ball in the 72 minutes he spent on the pitch.

Atalanta left wing-back Gosens was also in on the act, scoring one and assisting another to gather a WhoScored rating of 8.54. The 24-year-old completed 91.2% of his passes and made two tackles.

As mentioned earlier, Atalanta really streaked ahead against Chievo after Barba was given his marching orders. The 25-year-old was shown two yellow cards during his 40 minutes spent on the pitch and in that time he only made one interception and one clearance. Barba finished the weekend’s Serie A action as the lowest WhoScored rated player (4.48).