A goal down, with less than 20 minutes left to play, in a fixture they had not won for three seasons, Juventus needed a saviour. They had been dominated by Atalanta in Bergamo, overwhelmed by the hosts’ high press and carved open repeatedly by Robin Gosens and Papu Gomez. Only a missed penalty and some last-ditch blocks from Wojciech Szczesny and Matthijs de Ligt had kept them within touching distance.

In moments like this, it helps to be able to call on your club’s record signing. Lucky for Juventus, then, that they have more than one.

The €100m man, Cristiano Ronaldo, was absent, but his €90m precursor was present and correct. Gonzalo Higuaín pulled his team level: seizing on a loose ball inside the box and pivoting to fire a deflected shot beyond Pierluigi Gollini. Eight minutes later, he put his team in front with a first-time finish.

Finally, Higuaín turned provider, releasing Paulo Dybala with an angled pass from the halfway line to the edge of Atalanta’s area. His compatriot cut inside and slotted the ball home at the near post.

This was not the combination that Juventus expected to build their success upon in this campaign. Higuaín and Dybala were marketed to other teams in the summer, as the Bianconeri worked to balance the books following the arrivals of De Ligt, Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot. At least one of the Argentinians was supposed to depart, if not both.

Instead, they have carried their side. It was Dybala who hit Juventus’s winner against Milan before the international break, after entering the game as a second-half replacement for Ronaldo. Prior to that, he scored his team’s only goals in a come-from-behind win at home to Lokomotiv Moscow, as well as the draw at Lecce.

With Higuaín, I just need a glance to know what he’s thinking … we make a great pair Paulo Dybala

He and Higuaín both found the net away to Inter, in what remains Juventus’s most important victory of the season to date. The latter scored in the win over Napoli, too, and has shown impressive selflessness throughout. Saturday’s game was his fourth in a row with an assist.

Were it not for the presence of Ramsey, and a newly-roofed Curva Nord at Atalanta’s home ground, you could almost have believed we were back in 2016. That was when Higuaín arrived to partner Dybala, soon to be nicknamed by the papers as “an attack in HD”. They scored a combined 51 goals in that first season together, winning a domestic double and reaching the Champions League final.

“With Higuaín, I just need a glance to know what he’s thinking,” said Dybala of their on-pitch understanding after Saturday’s win. “We make a great pair.”

But can they make a great trio, when Ronaldo is present as well? The Portuguese is expected to return to the starting line-up against Atlético Madrid. Maurizio Sarri declined to answer questions about whether he might consider a front three.

Both the manager and Ronaldo have played down any talk of a rift, following the player’s angry response to being substituted against Milan. Ronaldo appeared to swear at Sarri as he headed to the tunnel, and then left the Allianz Stadium early, but subsequently told Portugal’s A Bola that he understood the decision to take him off.

Whether he has now had enough time to recover remains to be seen. Ronaldo remains very capable of scoring goals even when he is not at his physical best, and has since bagged four of them in two Euro 2020 qualifiers for Portugal. Yet both of his last two games for Juventus were decided by the player who replaced him – Dybala against Milan and before that Douglas Costa away to Lokomotiv Moscow.

Paulo Dybala celebrates after scoring Juve’s third goal against Atalanta. Photograph: Paolo Magni/EPA

All of which leaves Sarri in a delicate position. He has made it clear that he views Ronaldo as a special case, saying: “Cristiano is the best player on this team, so we need to organise the other 10 well for the defensive phase of the game and let him go wherever he needs on the pitch.”

That outlook meshes with the needs of his club. Juventus need to prioritise and ensure the happiness of their most valuable commercial asset.

At the same time, though, Sarri also has an obligation to win. So far, he is beyond reproach: taking 35 points from a possible 39 in Serie A and 10 from 12 in the Champions League. A victory over Atlético would guarantee Juventus first place, as would a draw in which neither team scores more than one goal.

Still, there is a sense that Sarri’s side are not yet delivering the fluid football that was hoped for. Gazzetta Sportiva offered a succinct analysis in its match report, suggesting that “Atalanta played like a great team, Juventus won with great players.”

Perhaps that is enough. Ronaldo is one of the greatest of all-time, and even in this injury-disrupted season has still scored a goal in every other game. Knowing Higuaín and Dybala can produce when he is absent is a huge asset to a side that failed to win four out of eight games that it played without him last season.

Any background concerns that Juventus may have – about the manager, Ronaldo’s fitness, or the quality of performances – will only become tangible if they start to lose. To date, they remain very good at winning.

Talking points

• Gian Piero Gasperini was right when he said that it was “Not one point lost, but three” for Atalanta. They were unfortunate – a Cuadrado handball went unpunished not long before Juventus’s second – but have missed Duván Zapata terribly up front, taking six points from six games since their top scorer got injured; before that it was 16 from seven.

• Chris Smalling headed in Roma’s opener against Brescia on Sunday, making him the most prolific Englishman in Serie A since David Beckham. He set one up for his centre-back partner Gianluca Mancini, too.

👏 Smalling turns provider this time, and Mancini produces a brilliant looping finish for his first Roma goal to double their lead!



⚽ The Giollarossi are in complete command now! pic.twitter.com/uH62F4Xdrd — Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) November 24, 2019

• This was the week when Antonio Conte shared his views on sex during the season. “In a period of competition, sex should not last long,” he told L’Equipe. “You need to put in the least exertion possible, so it’s better to stay under your partner.” It was not clear whether Lautaro Martinez was agreeing or disagreeing when he told Dazn: “At home, we relax.”

• An impressive victory for Inter on a sodden pitch away to Torino. This is only the second time in the club’s history that they have won 11 of their first 13 games in a top-flight campaign, though the occasion was marred by a serious knee injury to Nicolò Barella, who is not expected to play again until after the winter break.

• The mood at Napoli remains grim ahead of their Champions League visit to Liverpool, with owner Aurelio De Laurentiis issuing large fines and reportedly considering legal action against the players who mutinied against his punitive training camp this month. Carlo Ancelotti will have been encouraged to see Hirving Lozano get his second goal for the club away to Milan, but neither team impressed in a 1-1 draw.