Nicolo Zaniolo made sure Atalanta will stay top of Serie A this weekend with the only goal in Saturday's 1-0 win at Cagliari which secured a club-record 10th straight league win.

Substitute Zaniolo decided a hard-fought encounter in Sardinia by stroking home Raoul Bellanova's cut-back in the 66th minute. The victory moved Atalanta five points clear in Serie A.

Closest challengers Napoli can cut the gap back to two points at Udinese later on Saturday, while Juventus are 10 points off the pace ahead of their home fixture with bottom club Venezia.

"We're up there, but winning 10 matches in a row doesn't really mean anything as there are teams this season who have won eight on the bounce," said coach Gian Piero Gasperini to DAZN.

Gasperini was not happy with his players' performances as, after impressing in Tuesday's 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid, they struggled against Cagliari who are 15th and only two points above the relegation zone.

Atalanta, who also struck the post through Ademola Lookman almost straight after Zaniolo's winner, only came away with all three points thanks to a brilliant performance between the sticks from Marco Carnesecchi.

Goalkeeper Carnesecchi pulled off three sensational stops in the six minutes before the break and saved the win in stoppage time by keeping out Leonardo Pavoletti's header.

"A good chunk of this team, not everyone, needs to grow up a bit and get the same mentality as the core group of the squad," said Gasperini. whose decision to make three substitutions at half-time was a sign of his dissatisfaction.

"Only then will we make those big steps forward."

Zaniolo's strike was his third of the season and a further sign of new life from the Italy international after a difficult last few years.

The 25-year-old was once the rising star of Italian football after coming to prominence at Roma, where two serious knee injuries in 2020 stymied his development as a creative playmaker.

He won the inaugural Europa Conference League with Roma in 2022 under Jose Mourinho, but fell out with the Portuguese coach and last year was packed off to Galatasaray, from where he was loaned to Atalanta in July.

td/bsp/pb