Paulo Dybala provided assists for both Stephan El Shaarawy and Tammy Abraham, as Roma were clinical in their 2-0 victory away to Spezia.
The Giallorossi were without Nicolò Zaniolo after he handed in a transfer request, while Lorenzo Pellegrini was not fully fit and Roger Ibanez returned from suspension. The hosts missed M’Bala Nzola, Simone Bastoni, Jeroen Zoet and suspended Dimitrios Nikolaou, while Jakub Kiwior was sold to Arsenal, but Szymon Zurkowski arrived from Fiorentina.
Spezia lost Emil Holm to a muscular problem just 13 minutes in and there was controversy when Nicola Zalewski went down under pressure from Salva Ferrer, but the referee was very close and waved play on, evaluating they had simply crossed paths and accidentally clipped each other.
Stephan El Shaarawy tested Bartlomiej Dragowski from distance, while Petko Hristov got back for a risky block to stop Tammy Abraham going clear on Gianluca Mancini’s pass.
Zalewski cut inside from the left to blast just over the bar, as did El Shaarawy, then Abraham nodded a Dybala free kick across the face of goal, inches away from a Mancini tap-in.
Arkadiusz Reca thumped a ferocious half-volley just over, but Roma took the lead with a well-worked move. Abraham nodded on a long ball and El Shaarawy sent Dybala running down the right, ready to meet the roll across from La Joya for a simple tap-in.
Straight after the restart, Medhi Bourabia was fortunate to avoid a second yellow card for going in late on Chris Smalling.
Roma doubled their lead when Dybala intercepted a loose Salvatore Esposito pass and immediately threaded through for Abraham, who nutmegged Mattia Caldara and rushed forward to slide the finish beneath Dragowski’s legs.
Caldara risked an own goal with his header testing Dragowski and Abraham fired the follow-up across the face of goal with nobody able to get the final touch.
Daniel Maldini curled just over the bar and Viktor Kovalenko’s effort was charged down, as Roma defended in numbers.
Celik was booked in the final minutes and will be suspended against Napoli.
Spezia 0-2 Roma
El Shaarawy 45 (R), Abraham 49 (R)