AC Milan's crisis threatens to deepen as the champions head into Sunday's derby with Inter, miles off the Serie A title pace and in a battle to reach next year's Champions League.

Lautaro Martinez shot Inter Milan into second place in Serie A with both goals in Saturday's 2-1 win at winless Cremonese, while Atalanta cruised past Sampdoria 2-0 and into the Champions League spots.

Lautaro Martinez shot Inter Milan into second place in Serie A with both goals in Saturday's 2-1 win at Cremonese who are still yet to win a league game this season.

With 86 minutes gone of their last Serie A home match AC Milan's title defence was very much alive, two goals to the good against Roma and set to maintain the five-point gap separating the champions and league leaders Napoli.

Inter Milan missed the chance to go second in Serie A when they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Empoli on Monday.  Inter, who had won their last nine league games against Empoli, began the day in third but their hopes of climbing above city rivals AC Milan into second were hampered five minutes before half-time when Milan Skriniar was dismissed for a second yellow card.  The Slovak defender, who has been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain, was booked for obstruction in the 25th minute before being shown the red card for a nasty tackle.  The only goal came after 66 minutes when Nedim Bajrami provided the assist for 19-year-old Tommaso Baldanzi to fire home off his left foot for his third goal of the season.  Inter battled hard to retrieve the game with Simone Inzaghi throwing both Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku into the fray.  They came close on several occasions and had a header rebound off the bar but less than a week after lifting the Italian Super Cup in style with a 3-0 win over AC Milan, Inter may have kissed goodbye to the Scudetto.

Juventus played out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Atalanta in their first match since being slapped with a massive points deduction for illicit transfer activity, Roma taking their place in Serie A's Champions League positions following a 2-0 win at Spezia.

Roma pounced after Juventus were slapped with a massive points deduction by seeing off Spezia 2-0 on Sunday and provisionally moving into Serie A's Champions League positions.