High-flying Fiorentina are searching for their fifth successive victory following the impressive triumph over Milan at San Siro, and no wonder Viola are seen as hot favourites in this match. Atalanta, however, have notched up three wins in a row and have just ended Inter’s amazing run, so they have every reason to feel confident before the trip to Artemio Franchi.

Fiorentina continue to impress

Fiorentina are clearly a team that have shown the biggest improvement on their showings from last season and we are proud to have predicted their rise early into the season. Having witnessed the impact boss Vincenzo Montella and new signings have had on team’s showings, we have been backing Viola from a very start to the season and if you have followed our advice, you could have earned a nice profit by now. While their results on the travels were not always in accordance with very good showings, Fiorentina have been relentless at their Artemio Franchi from the very start to the season, winning six games there and only sharing spoils with Juventus. Having also improved to beat Genoa and Milan on the road, Viola go into this game high on confidence and searching for another win that could easily see them climb to Champions League places.

Stevan Jovetic continues to miss out through a muscle injury, but Mounir El Hamdaoui has recovered from an ankle problem.

Atalanta on fire

By finishing the previous league campaign in mid table despite the six-point penalty and poor finish of the season, Atalanta proved they are slowly becoming a genuine mid table side. With that in mind, club chiefs had no reason to make major changes to the playing squad, and they succeeded in keeping hold of all key players apart from Manolo Gabbiadini. As a result, the team from Bergamo started the season strongly, although the three-match losing run at the end of September threatened to take them to the dangerous zone. Atalanta, however, quickly returned to winning ways and went on to take no less than 13 points from next five Serie A games. Having done really well to beat high-flying Inter last weekend, Orobici travel to Florence full of confidence, but, even so, they could face a tough task against red-hot Fiorentina.

Federico Peluso and Facundo Para are suspended, while Gianpaolo Bellini, Daniele Capelli and Ferreira Pinto are all sidelined through injury.

Verdict

Fiorentina face a tough task against in-form Atalanta, but having done so well at their Artemio Franchi so far, Viola can be trusted to win this game as well. You should, nonetheless, expect the visitors to continue their impressive scoring run in Florence.

Top pick: Home win   1.62 (5/8) @ Coral

Alternative pick 1: Both teams to score   2.10 (11/10) @ William Hill

Alternative pick 2: Fiorentina to win by one goal   3.75 (11/4) @ Ladbrokes