Thiago Motta’s side beat Milan in a feast of football on Saturday that ended with Napoli pulling clear of their rivals

It took almost an hour for the first goal to arrive but once they started they just wouldn’t stop, Samuel Mbangula serving up the first dish of a Saturday night Serie A feast. A 6pm kick-off made Juventus-Milan the aperitivo before a dinner of Atalanta-Napoli.

How peculiar it sounds to frame a match between Italy’s most successful domestic side and its most prolific continental champion as the evening’s lighter course. Yet that is the reality: Juventus and Milan startied this weekend outside of Serie A’s top four, while Atalanta and Napoli are contenders for the Scudetto.