The ongoing mess surrounding Francesco Totti’s future at Roma has threatened to overshadow all of the good work done by Luciano Spalletti in his second stint in charge at the Giallorossi since replacing Rudi Garcia in January.
Totti’s legendary status at Roma will never be called into question, but there is now a danger his career will have no fairy tale ending after coming to blows with Spalletti.
In truth, however, Roma aren’t missing their iconic No.10. Their thumping 5-0 win over Palermo made it five wins in a row in league competition to move them back into the top four at Inter’s expense.
Edin Dzeko courted most of the attention for his inability to convert an open goal from four yards out, but it was the only blemish in a near faultless performance that saw Roma rack up their biggest league win since September 2009 (vs Bologna).
The former Manchester City striker has struggled to live up to expectations in the Eternal City since making the switch to Roma at the start of the season, but the Bosnia striker will now hope this is the launch pad he needs to kick start the next chapter in his career (9.88 rating).
Dzeko played a direct part in more goals in 90 minutes against Palermo (4 – 2 goals + 2 assists) than he had managed in his previous 1,164 minutes combined (4 goals).
He was joined in the Team of the Week by Mo Salah (9.22 rating), who this time managed to add end product to all of his menacing work, something that was absent when Roma faced Real Madrid in the Champions League last week.
The former Chelsea winger is now Roma’s leading goalscorer in the league after his brace against Palermo took his tally to nine for the season.
For more stats on Roma’s 5-0 win over Palermo, click here to visit the WhoScored match centre
