(Reuters) - Atalanta's winning run and top spot are at risk when the Serie A leaders take on fourth-placed Lazio this weekend, with Napoli and Inter Milan ready to pounce should Gian Piero Gasperini's side finally slip up.
Atalanta appear unstoppable, with a club record 11 successive league victories sending them soaring up the table to what seemed an unlikely position earlier this season.
They slumped to three defeats in their opening five games, including a 4-0 thumping at Inter, but a remarkable upturn in form has their fans dreaming of a first-ever league title.
Gasperini led Atalanta to their first European trophy last season, ending Bayer Leverkusen's 51 match unbeaten run to win the Europa League, the Bergamo club's second major trophy in their 117-year history.
That was Gasperini's first-ever trophy win, a just reward for his loyalty and work put in at Atalanta since joining in 2016.
Gasperini helped turn a club which had bounced between the top two tiers into a side consistently competing in European football, but his reign could easily have ended prematurely.
In his first season, Atalanta lost four of their opening five games, but the club kept faith and finished fourth, their highest ever finish in the top flight at that stage.
Atalanta's success has been built, not on high-spending, but rather an exceptional youth academy and scouting programme, along with Gasperini's aggressive, attacking playing style and an ability to get the best out of players.
The club sells big - in the last three seasons Teun Koopmeiners joined Juventus, Rasmus Hojlund signed for Manchester United and Cristian Romero went to Tottenham Hotspur - while new signings arrive for much less, often having failed elsewhere.
Gianluca Scamacca lasted one season at West Ham United, before scoring 12 league goals and six in the Europa League last season with Atalanta.
After the striker's anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in pre-season the club bought Mateo Retegui from Genoa, where he scored seven league goals last season. He already has 12 this campaign, topping the Serie A scoring charts.
Charles De Ketelaere failed to find the net in his debut season at AC Milan. Atalanta took him on loan last season and he scored 10 league goals before joining on a permanent move.
Ademola Lookman rarely impressed at the likes of Everton and RB Leipzig, but was recently named African Footballer of the Year, and scored a hat-trick in the Europa League final.
CHASING PACK
Lazio beat Napoli twice this month, knocking them out of the Coppa Italia, and off the top spot, before suffering a 6-0 hammering at home to Inter, but a win on Saturday would move them back to within three points of Atalanta.
Napoli and defending champions Inter both take on teams in the relegation zone.
Inter, three points off Atalanta and with a game in hand, are at Cagliari on Saturday while Napoli, two points behind the leaders, host Venezia on Sunday.
Juventus are the only unbeaten side in Serie A, but 10 draws leaves them sixth in the standings and nine points off top spot. They host fifth placed Fiorentina on Sunday.
AC Milan are well off the pace in eighth place, and they welcome AS Roma on Sunday.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
