Football Bet of the Day: Gasperini's greats to win in style

Hosts to lose again

Salernitana v Atalanta
Saturday 18 September, 19:45
Live on BT Sport

Sparta fell last night, as we played the role of Persians (check the history books, or watch the film 300) by backing NEC to avoid defeat. A 1-1 draw kept us on course for a perfect week.

We'll check in with Serie A now, because rock-bottom Salernitana have made a dreadful start to the campaign, and I think they could suffer another heavy defeat against an Atalanta team that is playing catch-up to some extent.

Salernitana look ill-equipped to compete at this level. They have lost 3-2 at Bologna, 4-0 at home to Roma and 4-0 at Torino. Despite the acquisition of Bayern Munich legend Franck Ribery and Simy, who scored 20 league goals for Crotone last season, it could be a long, hard season for a team that did incredibly well to win promotion in the first place.

Atalanta played out a thrilling 2-2 draw at Villarreal in midweek in the Champions League, but they have only won once in the league, securing a 2-1 victory at Torino. Their xG figures from Infogol suggest they should have claimed more points - they generated an xGF figure of 2.61 in their 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina, and they also won the xG battle in a 0-0 draw with Bologna.

Key midfielder Maarten de Roon is suspended, but Atalanta should still have enough to win this one with room to spare against such limited opposition. I'll back the visitors -1.5 on the Asian Handicap at 1.855/6.