Four points split 6th from 11th in Serie A
Frosinone sit 6th on 10 points, Atalanta are 11th on 6, and only 4 points separate them after 5 rounds.
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Six places, four points. That is the entire gap between Frosinone and Atalanta in Serie A after five rounds, and it says more about the middle of the table than either club would like.
Frosinone are the ones with the cushion. Three wins, one draw and one defeat have them on 10 points, sixth, with a goal difference of 5 built on 9 scored and 4 conceded. Their record reads well at home — 2 wins from 2 plus 0 plus 1 games there — and they have not lost away yet. The form line runs L, W, W, D, W, with a single win carrying them into the break.
Atalanta are the opposite story. Two wins and three defeats, no draws at all, 6 points and a goal difference of -2. They have lost three in a row. Read that again: three defeats on the spin from a side that finished the previous campaign far higher up the division. The last five read W, W, L, L, L.
Five points is a strange thing to call a crisis. It is also five places.
The wider table tightens the picture. Roma lead on 13 points with a goal difference of +11, level with Inter and Lazio, who are separated only by goal difference at +7 and +5. Cagliari sit fourth on 12. Milan are fifth on 11. Then comes Frosinone, and then the drop to Atalanta.
At the top of the scoring chart, Donyell Malen of Roma has 6. Gustavo Varela and Antonio Raimondo both have 4, and Antonio Raimondo plays for Frosinone — the sixth-placed side with the sharper attack and the smaller points total than three clubs above it.
Serie A resumes on Saturday 10 October, when Genoa meet Fiorentina. Two rounds later the middle of this table could look nothing like it does now. Or exactly like it.