Richmond Boakye was the difference in Bergamo as his early brace put the Nerazzurri on easy street inside 20 minutes against the Serie B promotion chasers.
Both teams started nervously but it was the Serie A side who took the game by the scruff of the neck after 13 minutes.
Lionel Scaloni, making his first apperance of the season, rode a challenge before the 36-year-old half volleyed into the area. Boakye killed the ball before spinning on a sixpence to slot into Pierluigi Frattali’s bottom right corner from the 12 yards out.
The Ghanian – on loan from Juventus – then double his and Atalanta’s tally six minutes later through great link up play with strike partner Rolando Bianchi.
The former Torino striker volleyed a long diagonal ball back across goal to find Boakye, who repeated the trick to smash past Frattali for the second time. The 21-year-old now with as many goals as he’s managed in Serie A this season.
Avellino tried to mount a comeback in the second half but found 35-year-old Vlada Avramov unwilling to give up his clean sheet on his Atalanta debut with La Dea safely seeing the game out.