Juventus 4 - Catania 0: Initial reaction and random observations

How do you follow up a dominating 2-0 win over Genoa? Well, with some more domination, of course. Juventus' 4-0 win over Catania on Wednesday night in Turin was exactly what you'd want to see when the top of the table meets a possible relegation contender — complete domination.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting the feeling that Juventus are enjoying the fact they're finally playing in front of their hometown crowd.

And luckily for Antonio Conte and his squad, they're going to be doing a lot of that before the next international break. Outside of the trip to Parma over the weekend, guess where Juventus will be playing the rest of their games before another two-week pause in the action? Yeah, that's right — Juventus Stadium.

Job done, on to the next one.

Oh, and one more thing: Anybody in the mood for some poker? Valid question.

Random thoughts and observations

• Leonardo Bonucci's haircut...yikes. At least he scored a goal to make up for the hair and, more importantly, the less-than-stellar performance.
  
  Now that I've got that out of my system, we can talk about the actual game.
  
  
• Giorgio Chiellini, that was one hell of a game. Seemed like whenever Juve needed a shot to be blocked or a crucial tackle made, it was Giorgio coming through with it. A unnecessary yellow at the end of the game might have dampened his game a little bit, but he was absolutely vital.
  
  If only he didn't get unjustly sent off against Real Madrid a week ago...
  
  
• How do you know Fernando Llorente is getting closer and closer to being the Fernando Llorente of old? It was a relatively quiet and subdue game for the Lion King and he still had an impact in the game — an assist and also played a role in Juve's opener.
  
  If only he had put away that header in the first half. That would have been awesome.
  
  
• Andrea Pirlo's free kick was an absolute pearl. Not a bad way to celebrate your 100th game in a Juventus jersey, huh? Somebody post the gif. I want to watch that for the next hour or two.
  
  
• Carlos Tevez keeps scoring goals. It's like every time he finds the back of the net he's giving the middle finger to the notion that some players take awhile to adjust to life in Serie A. Or something like that. Every goal that he scores, the price Juve paid for him looks more and more like an absolute steal.
  
  
• When I saw Paolo De Ceglie's name in the starting lineup, I didn't really know what to expect. His playing time has been so incredibly limited this season, how he'd play would be anybody's best guess. The end product, though, was a very pleasant surprise. His crosses were dangerous, his defensive effort wasn't disastrous, and resembled a player who had been getting consistent minutes this season. Kwadwo Asamoah gave Juve a presence on the left wing against Genoa, DJ Paulino just seemed to carry it over into the win over Catania.
  
  
• Speaking of wingbacks, Mauricio Isla was pretty solid for the second straight game. Remember when everybody never wanted to see his face again earlier this season? That was fun.
  
  
• Two clean sheets in a row. Who would have thought that would happen a couple weeks ago when Juve'sdefense was playing like a bunch of buffoons?
  
  
• Sebastian Giovinco has done pretty well off the bench this season. I know he's been battling a bit of an injury — Conte said he's taking painkillers before every game — and being a second-half sub is probably not the role he'd chose compared to starting on a regular basis, but he's definitely settling nicely into this super-sub deal.