Atalanta are joint leaders of Serie A with Roma after a Teun Koopmeiners hat-trick imposed the first defeat of the season on Torino.
The winners of this game would go top of the table along with Roma, while it was also a clash between Gian Piero Gasperini and his pupil Ivan Juric. Berat Djimsiti was injured, Jose Luis Palomino suspended after failing a doping test and Jeremie Boga was not even on the bench after a failed transfer to Leicester City, but Davide Zappacosta made his return. Toro had Wilfried Singo out on a ban, with Aleksei Miranchuk and David Zima injured, then lost Samuele Ricci in the warm-up, replaced by Demba Seck.
There were emotional scenes before kick-off, as Josip Ilicic saluted the fans after terminating his contract by mutual consent.
A dangerous Rafael Toloi surge forward threatened early on, the shot deflected inches wide off Alessandro Buongiorno.
Vanja Milinkovic-Savic flew to fingertip a sudden Teun Koopmeiners scorcher over the bar, then made himself big with a decisive block as Duvan Zapata shrugged Buongiorno off to go clear one-on-one.
Atalanta thought they had scored when a corner was taken short, the cross floated to Merih Demiral for a cushioned volley that bounced off the upright, it came back to him and Milinkovic-Savic made a desperate save on the rebound.
Moments later, Seck cut inside from the right and his shot was deflected onto the base of the near post, but the offside flag was up.
Duvan Zapata went off with a muscular problem, giving teenage sensation Rasmus Hojlund his Serie A debut.
Torino had the ball in the net with Nikola Vlasic, but he was just offside on the Sasa Lukic assist.
Right on the stroke of half-time, Ola Aina mis-timed his tackle on Brandon Soppy for a penalty, which Koopmeiners converted.
Koopmeiners was on target again straight after the restart for his third goal in two games, a daisy-cutter from outside the box that took a slight deflection through a sea of legs to find the near bottom corner.
Toloi thought he’d made it 3-0 on 66 minutes when left unmarked at the back post on a corner, but his volley smashed against the crossbar.
Antonio Sanabria’s half-volley dipped just over the bar, then Linetty went even closer with a strike that bounced off the frame of the goal.
Vlasic did score moments later, gathering from Pietro Pellegri’s assist and smashing his strike into the roof of the net from 12 yards.
However, Valentin Lazaro bundled into the back of Ademola Lookman for another penalty, which Koopmeiners converted for his hat-trick.
Atalanta 3-1 Torino
Koopmeiners pen 45, 47, pen 84 (A), Vlasic 77 (T)
Koopmeiners is such a beast. Wish him at Milan one day