Roma continued their assault on the Serie A title with a resounding 3-1 victory over Udinese – their fifth consecutive success in the league.

The contest was all but settled in the opening 10 minutes at Stadio Olimpico, as Maicon played in Miralem Pjanic for the first goal and then scored one himself soon afterwards.

Gervinho made certain of the victory just after the hour mark when he scored his sixth goal in seven games and Roma’s 25th in 10 games – their best scoring record in more than 50 years – while Cyril Thereau scored late on for Udinese.

Napoli matched Roma's feat of five consecutive Serie A wins as they beat Palermo 2-0 to go second in the table.

Gonzalo Higuain scored a superb drive from outside the box to give the home side the lead just before half time, and Dries Mertens made sure of the win with a goal 10 minutes from time.

AC Milan kept their first clean sheet of the season as Luca Antonelli's second-half strike earned Sinisa Mihajlovic's men a second consecutive Serie A victory, 1-0 over Chievo.

Juventus, meanwhile, were denied back-to-back victories for the first time this season as Giorgio Chiellini was sent off in a 1-0 defeat at Sassuolo.

Nicola Sansone's brilliant first-half free-kick gave the home side their first win over Juve and Massimiliano Allegri could only watch as his struggling Scudetto champions slipped to their fourth defeat of the season against one of his old clubs.

Atalanta came from behind to beat Lazio 2-1 courtesy of a late winner from Alejandro Gomez.

Lucas Biglia had given Lazio the lead, but Dusan Basta's own goal gifted Atalanta a way back into the game, before Gomez sealed all three points in the 86th minute.

Late drama at Torino saw the home side denied their first win in four games by an injury-time equaliser in a 3-3 draw with Genoa.

Diego Laxalt, who had opened the scoring for Genoa after 26 minutes, scored again in the 94th to spare the blushes of team-mate Panagiotis Tachtsidis, who looked like he had handed Torino a win when he put through his own net five minutes earlier.

Elsewhere, Fiorentina cruised to a 2-0 win at Verona, and an injury-time winner from Paolo Sammarco earned Frosinone a 2-1 win over Carpi.