Miralem Pjanic's free kick gave Juventus a 2-1 win at Chievo on Sunday as goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon celebrated his 600th Serie A appearance.
Mohamed Salah scored a hat-trick to give second-placed AS Roma a 3-0 win over Bologna and Inter Milan, still looking for a replacement for coach Frank de Boer who was sacked last Tuesday, beat bottom club Crotone by the same score after taking 84 minutes to break through. Gianluca Lapadula's first-ever Serie A goal gave AC Milan a 2-1 win at lowly Palermo while Empoli, who had scored two goals all season, tripled their tally in a single match with a 4-0 win at fellow strugglers Pescara.
Buffon, 38, became the fourth player to reach the 600-match mark after Paulo Maldini, Javier Zanetti and Francesco Totti. The first 168 of those were with Parma, the remainder with Juventus and he also made 37 appearances in Serie B where Juventus played in the 2006-07 season.
Juventus went ahead early in the second half when Mario Mandzukic ran on to Juan Cuadrado's pass to sweep the ball past Stefano Sorrentino. Sergio Pellisier equalised for Chievo from a penalty which he won himself after being tripped by Stephan Lichtsteiner but Pjanic curled in a free kick in the 75th minute to give Juve the points. Juventus have 30 points from 12 games, four ahead of Roma with Milan a further point back in third.
Salah broke the deadlock for Roma after 13 minutes with a scuffed finish from Diego Perotti's cross. The Egyptian had a goal disallowed on the hour but got his second in the 62nd minute when he ran on to Kevin Strootman's through ball and guided his shot past Angelo da Costa. He struck again nine minutes later, snapping up a rebound after Da Costa parried Edin Dzeko's shot.
Inter, under caretaker coach Stefano Vecchi, are ninth with 17 points after their win over Crotone. They huffed and puffed and eventually broke through in the 84th minute when Ivan Perisic collected a long crossfield pass on the right, advanced on goal and scored with a diagonal shot.
Mauro Icardi won and converted a penalty with two minutes left and then turned in Eder's cross in stoppage time for his 10th league goal of the season. Lapadula, 26, who has spent most of his career in Serie B, finally made his mark in the top flight when he scored with a cheeky backheel from Suso's shot with eight minutes to go at Palermo.
Suso had given Milan an early lead, firing home after Palermo goalkeeper
Josip Posavec and defender Haitam Aleesami collided with each other, but Ilija Nestorovski levelled for the Sicilians. Massimo Maccarone ended Empoli's eight-game goal drought when he put them ahead after 12 minutes at Pescara and "Big Mac", who himself had not scored for six months, was on target again one minute before halftime.
Manuel Pucciarelli scored in between and Riccardo Saponara added a fourth in the 89th minute. Atalanta climbed to fifth with a 3-0 win at Sassuolo, their sixth win in seven matches. Fiorentina were held 1-1 at home by Sampdoria as were Genoa by Udinese.