The record signing rediscovered some old wing wizardry as the champions won 3-1 amid their best start to a season since 1930

For a man who launched an app devoted to football tactics, Massimiliano Allegri does not always sound terribly fond of them. “We can talk for hours about schemes and organisation,” he told La Repubblica in 2014. “But games are won by players. If you have [Leo] Messi you almost start 2-0 up. It’s the same with [Cristiano] Ronaldo.”

Little did he know the Portuguese would join him at Juventus. A lot can change in four years, but the victory they shared over Napoli on Saturday suggested Allegri’s assessment might be as valid as ever.

Juventus did not technically get a two-goal head-start. They were 1-0 down after 10 minutes. But Ronaldo was the common factor in all three goals the champions scored in response as they swept away last season’s runners-up, and the only team that had threatened to keep up with them so far in 2018-19.

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First came his cross for Mario Mandzukic’s equalising header. Tuttosport would quip, with customary understatement, that the ball was so good Unesco had assigned it “world heritage” status. It was the sort of old-fashioned wing play Ronaldo was supposed to have abandoned in this latter chapter of his career, turning Elseid Hysaj inside out to make space for the delivery.

His intentions on the next two goals were less selfless. A shot drilled towards the bottom corner was pushed on to the post by David Ospina, before Mandzukic poked home the rebound. Finally, Leonardo Bonucci slid in to convert a corner from close range after Ronaldo glanced the ball on in the middle.

Officially, he finished with two assists. You could argue he only meant one of them, yet it was still his unnatural leaping ability that made the final goal possible, getting his head to a ball that would have sailed over most others.

In any case, the numbers understate his contribution. This was Ronaldo’s best game in a Juventus shirt, a constant menace on the left of attack. His presence alone was enough to drag Napoli’s midfield backwards, breaking the press they had applied so effectively early on.

It was by harrying Juventus’s defenders that they took the lead, forcing Bonucci into a bad pass that was intercepted by Allan and funnelled quickly to José Callejón, who squared it to Dries Mertens for a simple finish. Napoli, for 20 minutes, were spell-binding, and might have been ahead sooner had Piotr Zielinski’s shot not drifted on to the upright.

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Even as Juventus took control, the Partenopei still had their moments. At 2-1, Alex Sandro was forced to scramble off the line with Callejón in close attendance. Minutes later, the Spaniard went clean through only to be thwarted by Wojciech Szczęsny. Were it not for Mario Rui’s red card, perhaps the last act of this game would have played out differently.

And yet by full-time it was not just the scoreline that felt bleak for Napoli. They had done so much right, Carlo Ancelotti’s fluid 4-4-2 seeming to flummox the Bianconeri early on, but what does it matter when your opponent can just give the ball to the five-time Ballon d’Or winner? “You cannot escape it,” wrote Luigi Garlando in La Gazzetta Sportiva. “Talent is a rich club’s caviar, tactics are the bread of the poor.”

The numbers are daunting. Juventus have now won all eight games they have played across all competitions, the club’s best start since 1930. Their six-point lead atop Serie A is the biggest any team has ever enjoyed this early in a campaign.

Is it all over already? Not according to either manager. Ancelotti argued this game had only reinforced his belief this team could compete, and that greater courage in key moments could have made the difference. Allegri said it was time for his players to “shut up and work”.

Quietly, though, he had to be more satisfied than he was letting on. Ronaldo’s star turn did not happen in isolation, but because he is becoming better integrated into this team. His developing rapport with Mandzukic has been noted. There has always been professional respect between players with a shared habit for showing up in the biggest games, but increasingly they understand each other’s movements as well.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mario Rui leaves the pitch after being shown a red card. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters

Ronaldo showed he was willing to put himself at the service of the team, rather than expecting everyone else to work for him. The drive for personal achievement remains, but there was nothing insincere about his celebration when Bonucci bundled the third goal in.

A murkier note for Juventus, indeed, came off the pitch. During a post-game interview on Sky Sports, the club’s CEO Beppe Marotta revealed he will be leaving. Even now, the reasons for this decision remain unclear. Marotta has made it clear this was the club’s desire more than his own but that, as a “company man”, he accepted it. Why would Juventus want to part ways, though, with a director widely credited as playing a fundamental role in their return to the forefront of not just the domestic game but European football as well?

Hired in late 2010, Marotta oversaw the construction of Antonio Conte’s first title winners and all the iterations since, bringing the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba and Paulo Dybala to the club, not to mention Allegri. It is rumoured he and the team’s president, Andrea Agnelli, clashed over the Ronaldo signing – in which he took a back seat to sporting director Fabio Paratici – but officially Juventus simply want to freshen things up.

Last Monday, Marotta had won recognition as the ‘best executive’ in the game at the World Football Summit. Games, as Allegri notes, are won by players. Long-term success, unromantic as it might be, is still built on decisions made in boardrooms.

Talking points

• A week ago, James Pallotta was “disgusted” as Roma lost to Bologna. How different the world looks already after the Giallorossi followed up a 4-0 rout of Frosinone with a 3-1 derby win over Lazio. Fate played its hand – Javier Pastore was poor before getting injured and replaced by Lorenzo Pellegrini, who duly scored a Pastore-esque backheel – and the frailty of this side was still highlighted by the goal Federico Fazio gave away. But there was also a defiance and combativeness that had been missing so far. And having Aleskandar Kolarov on free-kick duty doesn’t hurt, either.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Aleksandar Kolarov celebrates after scoring for Roma against Lazio. Photograph: Angelo Carconi/EPA

• For once, Milan built a lead too big to throw away. Four goals from outside the 18-yard-box – something they had not done, according to Gazzetta, since such stats started being tracked full-time in 2004 – at Sassuolo were perhaps a fitting way to win a game which they started with an abundance of attacking players but no actual striker. Suso breaking a duck that had endured 1,728 minutes was also a relief.

• Gervinho, by contrast, is averaging one every 101 minutes for Parma. What year is this again?

• Still not as good as Krzysztof Piatek, who scored both goals in Genoa’s win over Frosinone and now has eight in six games. Ronaldo has some catching up to do in the running to become capocannoniere.