Luciano Spalletti said Roma are benefiting from a player who believes he is a "top striker" after Edin Dzeko continued his fine form in front of goal for the capital club.

After scoring a hat-trick in the Europa League during the week, Dzeko was at it again as Roma routed Torino 4-1 in Serie A action on Sunday.

Dzeko broke the deadlock in the 10th minute, taking his Serie A tally to 19 goals, having netted 10 times in his past seven games in all competitions.

Overall, Dzeko has scored 29 goals in 2016-17 and Roma head coach Spalletti heaped praise on the Bosnia-Herzegovina international, who struggled last term.

"Dzeko has started believing he's a top striker and that is a massive boost for us," Spalletti said post-match.

"He can feel the confidence of the club and his team-mates, who have improved with him and in turn fuel his confidence.

"We made four changes from the Villarreal match and that shows that our squad is in good shape and everyone wants to show that they're proper players.

"Edin is an important player – he's had to suffer the judgements made about him last season.

"He's a smashing lad, loves the dressing room banter and trains well. He shows willing and he's humble, polite. He needed to discover his form. I told him that I had confidence in him and even flattered him a bit – that's necessary too."

Mohamed Salah, Leandro Paredes and Radja Nainggolan were also on target as Roma stayed second in the table, two points ahead of Napoli and seven adrift of defending champions Juventus.

"Our rivals are doing well and if we lose focus we risk them overtaking us," Spalletti added. "That's the only thing we can be thinking about. We want to have great evenings like this with our fans – we want to score goals and win football matches."