Atalanta's Strong Start and Sarri's Caution Ahead of Roma Clash
Atalanta hit the new league season at full speed, and the Gewiss Stadium is already starting to feel like a fortress.
Two games, two wins. First Sassuolo were swept aside, then Bologna were pushed out of Bergamo in far more dramatic fashion. The second victory came almost at the death, when Samardzic stepped up and lashed in a late strike that sent the home crowd into uproar and lifted Atalanta alongside Roma at the top of the table.
A perfect start on paper. On the pitch, a team that looks sharp, aggressive, and already comfortable under pressure.
Sarri sounds the alarm on schedule and form
Yet as the league table flatters, Maurizio Sarri’s tone does not. Speaking from the Zingonia training center on the eve of the showdown with Roma, the coach cut a more cautious figure.
“Malen is in great form and will be a problem for the entire match,” he warned, picking out one of his key men as both a weapon and a reference point for the challenge ahead. The message was clear: Atalanta have quality, but they will need every ounce of it.
Sarri then lifted the lid on the workload his side is facing. “We’ve prepared normally; we’re the only team in Italy that plays five games in sixteen days tomorrow, but we’re having a few issues. Our growth has undoubtedly slowed.”
No excuses, but no disguises either. The schedule bites, the legs feel it, and Sarri knows it. The early momentum risks being blunted by sheer volume of games, and he is not pretending otherwise.
Roma raised a level
If fatigue is one concern, the opponent is another. Roma arrive not just as co-leaders, but as a squad Sarri believes has taken a significant step forward.
“They were strong and have become even stronger,” he said, offering a blunt assessment of the Giallorossi’s rise. “They will fight for the Scudetto until the end, and I’d be surprised if the opposite happened.”
That is more than respect. It is a statement about the balance of power at the top of Serie A. Atalanta’s blistering start has put them in the same bracket, at least for now, yet Sarri is under no illusions about the scale of the test.
So the stage is set: Atalanta, perfect at home and riding the high of Samardzic’s late winner, against a Roma side their own coach now openly tips as title contenders. Early in the season or not, this feels like a game that will say something about how far Atalanta can really go.
