“We’re gonna win the league”, sang the Gewiss Stadium almost in unison on Friday night.
This was not a tongue-in-cheek joke nor a pie-in-the-sky kind of dream, for there is nothing casual about Atalanta.
Not about this version of Atalanta, at any rate.
Ademola Lookman’s late winner against AC Milan lifted the Bergamaschi to the top of Serie A with a two-point gap over previous leaders Napoli, who lost at home against Lazio on Sunday night.
Never before have La Dea led Serie A 15 games into the season.
“The fans chanting about the Scudetto? Let them enjoy it,” said Gian Piero Gasperini.
“We’ve never been in top of the league so far into the season. The people of Bergamo are grounded, though.
“If we’re still up there in twenty games’ time, the chants will be fully justified. But for now, it’s just a natural expression of excitement.”
These are uncharted waters for Atalanta and, to an extent, for calcio as a whole.
In Italian football, power is by and large concentrated in the same offices.
Verona’s Scudetto in 1985 was the first title won by a team not from one of Italy’s regional capitals since Pro Vercelli triumphed in 1922 and hitherto the last.
Sampdoria’s triumph six years later, meanwhile, remains the last won by a club outside calcio’s traditional elite.
The Blucerchiati provide an interesting parallel for the Bergamaschi.
Vujadin Boskov’s men lifted the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990, before triumphing in Serie A the following season.
Could Atalanta, winners of the Europa League in May, repeat the feat?
“Inter remain my pick for the title, but Gasperini has every chance of pulling off a surprise,” was Fabio Capello’s verdict in La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Since Sampdoria’s Scudetto 33 years ago, title celebrations have only taken place in the black and white half of Turin, Milan and Rome, with Naples a beautiful exception in 2023.
Were Atalanta to win the league this season, Bergamo would be the smallest town to celebrate the Scudetto since Vercelli over a century ago.
But while in calcio’s lexicon La Dea may be a provinciale – a club hailing from a small provincial town – there is nothing diminutive about their status in Serie A and in European football.
Over the course of the past 12 months, Atalanta have beaten Milan three times, won against Napoli twice, trounced Liverpool at Anfield and and humbled a then-still unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen.
This season alone, the Bergamaschi have held Arsenal to a draw, beaten Milan and Fiorentina, themselves deserving of the status of Serie A’s surprise package and only three points adrift of Atalanta with a game in hand.
Last season, only league winners Inter Milan won more points at home in Serie A than Atalanta and the Gewiss Stadium has remained a fortress.
La Dea have won seven of their eight home matches, while drawing against Arsenal and Celtic in the Champions League and keeping a clean sheet in both.
Plainly, Atalanta are no longer a surprise package.
In eight seasons under Gasperini they have finished third three times, fourth twice and never finished below eighth.
What has changed, however, is that Atalanta have developed the kind of consistency that is a requirement for any team harbouring hopes of winning a league title.
The Atalanta experience has at times felt like a rollercoaster under Gasperini, with dizzying heights followed by a drastic drop in performances.
The pattern resurfaced in the first two months of the season, with a 4-0 shellacking of Lecce on the opening day of the season, followed by defeats against Torino and Inter.
The draw against Arsenal, meanwhile, came before the home defeat against Como and a draw against 10-man Bologna.
But the Bergamaschi have shifted gears since, winning nine consecutive games in Serie A and picking up seven points from three Champions League fixtures over the same period.
True to form, the run has included some resounding victories, with Atalanta dispatching both Verona and Young Boys 6-1, dismantling Genoa 5-1 and, most impressive of all, demolishing Napoli 3-0 at the Maradona.
Peel the curtain back and the numbers are even more impressive.
With 38 goals in 15 matches, La Dea have the best attack in Serie A and in Mateo Retegui they have the division’s top scorer with 12 goals in 15 matches, four more than Lookman.
Along with Nicolo Zaniolo and Charles De Ketelaere, the pair have combined for 31 goals in all competitions this season.
The midfielders aren’t exactly goal-shy themselves, with Lazar Samardzic, Mario Pasalic and Marco Brescianini combining for seven goals.
By contrast, Milan’s forwards have scored 26 between them, while Inter’s have combined for 19, two more than their counterparts at Juventus and Napoli.
And if goals have flown, Atalanta have a defensive solidity about them they often lacked in previous years under Gasperini, conceding just 17 goals in the league so far.
Only Juventus and Fiorentina with 10, and Inter and Milan with 15 and 16 respectively have fared better.
Could Atalanta really stay the course and pull off the impossible?
Back in 2021, Gasperini reflected that winning “the Scudetto is beyond Atalanta’s reach,” and two years later insisted “winning the Coppa Italia is the only realistic goal”.
Tellingly, when asked the same question on Friday night, he smiled.
