It seemed fitting that Juventus' most dominant display of their Serie A campagin, reared its head during Conte's first return to the Juventus Stadium touchline, since the final day of last season. La Vecchia Signora's united effort in attack and defence, forced Atalanta into an early submission, and proved once again that Juve are currently a class above the rest of the Serie A. Here are the Vavel player ratings for the game:
Juventus
Gianluigi Buffon (7/10): Relatively untested throughout the fixture, but his sublime save from German Denis' effort prevented the afternoon from turning into an uncomfortable affair for the Juventini.
Andrea Barzagli (7/10): Like Gigi, Barzagli had a quiet evening, with the only real threat coming from the slippery surface under foot. When called upon however, the Italian international was commanding in the air, and threatened when given a chance to go forward.
Luca Marrone (7.5/10): Given a chance in the libero role, but almost cost his side the lead with an untimely slip, which allowed Denis to go through on goal. After this mistake, Marrone grew into the game, spraying long passes into every nook and cranny on the field. Although this was one of his first outings at the heart of defence, the 22 year old seemed to naturally read the game well. A real prospect.
Giorgio Chiellini (8/10): Amongst an array of wonderful sprints forward, he was able to set up Marchisio for the third goal. As well as being a thorn in the Atalanta defence, the towering centre back nullified the threat of Denis throughout the game and commanded the left side of the field in dictator - like fashion.
Stephan Lichsteiner (6.5/10): A typical tireless display from "Forrest Gump"; although solid in defence, he did not make a huge impact in attacking areas like the previous week.
Arturo Vidal (8/10): The midfield powerhouse missed a glorious opportunity to make it four in the second half. In spite of this miss, he was all consuming in midfield, rarely letting any of the Atalanta midfielders get within ten feet of the ball; Vidal won tackles he did not even contest today... how is that even possible?
Andrea Pirlo (9/10): The sporting equivalent to Mozart, was once again irrepressible in the heart of the Juventus midfield. Directed every Juve attack with a range of passing similar to The Byrd's harmonic range, and capped off a truly mesmirising performance with a costless kick that only he could conjure up. Man of the Match.
Claudio Marchisio (8.5/10): Il Principino has been on song over the past few weeks, and continued to show that he is one of the best midfielders in Europe this weekend. Scored a patent long range effort to seal the three points, but it was his all - round battling perfomance in the middle park alongside Vidal, which made the seven point lead a possibility.
Kwadwo Asamoah (6/10): Had very little impact in the attacking third, but provided avid defensive for Chiellini when he came out of defence, and remained disciplined throughout.
Sebastion Giovinco (8/10): The Atomic Ant did everything but score today. Assisted the opener with a clever ball through to Vucinic, and constantly threatened the Atalanta goal, but was just unable to convert any of the chances that feel his way.
Mirko Vucinic (7.5/10): Opened the scoring at the Juventus Stadium for the first time since... the invention of the telephone. Took his goal well and linked up with Giovinco in an impressive manner throughout.
Subs
Simone Padoin (6.5/10): Made a cameo against his former employers on the right hand side of midfield, and was able to get the better of his former team mates on more than one occasion.
Emanuele Giaccherini (7.5/10): The diminutive winger created a number of chances for his fellow minature attacking player, but Giovinco was unable to convert any of these chances.
Fabio Quagliarella (6/10): Came on with half an hour to go and almost scored a typical wonder goal, but his long range effort went just wide.
Atalanta
Andrea Consigli (8.5/10): The Italian goalkeeper did everything he could to save his side from embarrassment during the second half; pulling off a countless number of world class saves.
Stefano Lucchini (3/10): Failed to move more than ten feet during the first half, and basically admired Juve's attacking poweress until his manager had a word with him at half time. Credit where it is due though, he was not caught out of positon once in the first half.
Thomas Manfredini (0/10): Impossibly idiotic in his sending off which condemned his side to defeat.
Gianpaolo Bellini (4/10): His unfortuante slip in the opening five minutes proved costly as Vucinic was able to capitalise. Struggled to get to grips with the clever movement of the two Juventus strikers throughout the rest of the game.
Federico Peluso (5/10): Not as horrendous as his defensive counterparts, but struggled when up against Padoin in the second half.
Ezequiel Schelotto (5.5/10): Attempted to venture forward, even when his side where down to ten men in the hope of creating an opening for Denis; but was largely pegged back in his own half due to the constant pressure exerted by La Vecchia Signora's attacking players. A frustrating encounter for the young wide player.
Luca Cigarni (4/10): Was extremely comfortable in posession and sprayed the ball everywhere he could, when he could; this however, was an irregular occurence.
Ivan Radovanovic (2/10): The Serbian international looked completely out of his depth up against Juve's MVP midfield, and he was subbed out of pity at half time.
Giacomo Bonaventura (N/A): The unfortunate player to be sacrificed for Manfredini stupidity.
Maximiliano Moralez (6/10):The trequartista was a willing runner all afternoon, but he rarely recieved any support from his midfield attacking partners.
German Denis (3/10): Missed a glorious opportunity to draw level inside the first ten minutes; this miss proved to be a crucial turning point in the game.
Subs
Davide Biondini (4/10): Fared slightly better than Radovanovic in the second half, but Juventus' midfield were still able to dominate proceedings.
Guglielmo Stendardo (5.5/10): The most solid defender Atalanta deployed in Turin as Juve were unable to score a valid goal whilst he was playing.
Riccardo Cazzola (N/A): Late cameo.