ATALANTA

League position: 8th
Form: D D L W D
Serie A top-scorer: Luis Muriel (4)
Last time out in Serie A: Juventus 1-1 Atalanta

Their season so far: Atalanta flew out the traps at the start of the campaign, scoring 13 times in successive wins over Lazio (4-1), Torino (4-2) and Cagliari (5-2) across the first three matchdays of the season.

Since then, however, Gian Piero Gasperini’s entertainers have somewhat lost their mojo, chalking up more defeats (three) than wins (two) in the eight following games.

That’s seen Atalanta - who finished third in each of the last two seasons - slip to eighth, six points adrift of Roma in fourth going into this game.

With plenty of football still to play they’re far from out of the top-four running, but their participation in this year’s Champions League may well be the reason for their inconsistency.

They navigated their UCL group as runners-up to book a meeting with Real Madrid in the first knockout stage, but did so while picking up three points in the league just once - a 1-0 win over last-placed Crotone - between 21 October’s opening group game and their final encounter of Group D on 9 December.

Gasperini’s team have, however, entered the festive period with a 3-0 win over Fiorentina and a 1-1 draw at the champions to get the ball rolling ahead of Roma’s visit.

They were without Mattia Caldara, Josip Ilicic, Mario Pasalic and Rafael Toloi (all injured) for the point at Juve and the quartet could again be missing when the Giallorossi come to town.

There’s even greater confusion over the potential involvement of Papu Gomez at the Gewiss Stadium - in both the short and long-term - as his fall-out with La Dea's boss continues to rumble on.

Club captain Gomez - so instrumental in Atalanta’s success under Gasperini - has sat on the bench for their last two league outings, but did get on the pitch for the final 37 minutes at the Allianz Stadium and could still have a significant role to play if he and his coach can patch things up.

What they've said:

"It will be a very nice season, there is a group of teams that is growing. It’s a more open championship, this year there are also Milan, Napoli and Roma.

“Juventus are among the favourites, but are not the absolute favourites, they’ve changed identity. There are 27 games left, we can play on a par with everyone.” - Atalanta coach Gasperini