The game had not even kicked off and it was starting to feel like a prize ceremony. Ademola Lookman held up the trophy he won as the African men’s footballer of the year. Atalanta’s president, Antonio Percassi, beamed as he handed over Serie A’s coach of the month award to Gian Piero Gasperini.

Percassi’s son, Luca, the club’s CEO, spoke for the TV cameras about the recent quality of life survey conducted by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. It had ranked Bergamo, where Atalanta are based, as the best place to reside in all of Italy. “As a Bergamasco, I can confirm those statistics,” he replied with a laugh.

The American football coach Vince Lombardi, a five-time NFL champion in the 1960s and still regarded as one of the greatest in his sport, famously said: “Winning is not a sometime thing. It’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time.”

How fitting, six decades later, that a football team from the Lombardy region should carry that message forward. Atalanta never used to win much of anything, besides the occasional Serie B title as they bounced back and forth between Italy’s top two divisions. Before the Europa League triumph in May, their last major trophy dated back further than Lombardi’s.

Now, though, they have the habit. Atalanta arrived for Sunday’s game against Empoli on a run of 10 consecutive league victories. That run had carried them to the top of the Serie A table, though Napoli’s win over Genoa on Saturday had bumped them back into second pending the result of this game.

Empoli began the weekend 10th in the table, but anybody who has paid attention to Roberto D’Aversa’s side would know better than to take them lightly. One of the youngest teams in Serie A, led by a pair of recent Italy Under-21 forwards in Lorenzo Colombo and Sebastiano Esposito, they won away to Roma already this season as well as drawing with Juventus and Fiorentina.

It was Colombo who put Empoli ahead in the 13th minute, converting a cutback from his Scottish teammate Liam Henderson. Atalanta responded with goals from Charles De Ketelaere and Lookman before half-time. They had hit the woodwork twice by then, playing with authority and aggressive intent.

But Empoli were not done. Ten minutes into the second half, they won a penalty, with Berat Djimsiti judged after a VAR review to have fouled Alberto Grassi – a former graduate of Atalanta’s own academy – as they challenged for a ball on the edge of the box. Esposito converted confidently.

This time Atalanta struggled to respond. Perhaps there was fatigue from a packed schedule through this first part of the season or perhaps they were feeling the loss of a focal point up front after Mateo Retegui was injured during the first half, but clean chances were hard to come by. If anything, Empoli had started to look more menacing.

But winning is a habit. In the 86th minute, De Ketelaere received possession just outside the right corner of the box. The position did not appear threatening at first, but he accelerated as he moved inside: past one defender, then a second, then a third. As a fourth arrived to stop him from going further, the Belgian drew his boot and drilled a shot back across his body and into the bottom corner.

It was another act of individual magnificence from a player who has flourished under Gasperini. Written off after just one year at Milan, who paid €35m to sign him from Club Brugge in 2022, De Ketelaere has spent the 18 months since delivering an extended seminar on how patience, in football, can be a virtue.

He looked happier with Atalanta from day one, scoring on his debut, but it would be false to tell his story as an overnight transformation. De Ketelaere took time to find his place in Gasperini’s system and to master his own physicality. He is an atypical player, a lanky left-footed dribbler with exceptional close control but also a deceptive strength and presence in the air. Whether dented by his experience at Milan, or simply going through the natural process of a young athlete growing into their body, it has felt as though he needed time to find the confidence to lean into those latter traits. Three of his five Serie A goals this season – including the first on Sunday – have been headers.

“I wanted him a lot,” said Gasperini of De Ketelaere at full-time. “He’s extraordinary. But it’s only when you have faith in yourself that you become able to resolve a difficult match like this … He did not need a magic potion: he’s a kid who works hard. Now he has the heart to go with his head.”

De Ketelaere already has 10 goals and nine assists across all competitions this season, and the triple threat of Atalanta’s attack – him and Lookman playing either side of Retegui – has been more than most opponents can handle. Gasperini suggested that the latter’s injury did not appear severe, but it will be an anxious wait for the results of further testing on Monday.

There is a shortage of other options at No 9 with Gianluca Scamacca, last season’s starter, still recovering from the cruciate ligament tear he suffered in August. Zaniolo has performed well in recent cameos, and did head the ball down for Lookman’s goal against Empoli, but it is not his natural position.

Even in the worst-case scenario though, who would bet against Gasperini and this group of players coming up with effective solutions? They have already ridden out long-term absences for Scamacca and the centre-back Giorgio Scalvini, as well as the departure of Teun Koopmeiners – arguably their most influential player last season – to come this far.

They will be top of the table at Christmas, and have won 11 games in a row. As one reporter said to Gasperini at full-time, the last two teams who went on such a run in Serie A were Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli and Antonio Conte’s Napoli Both finished as champions.

Could Atalanta do the same? They have never won Serie A, but the answer must be: “why not?” Inter, who could pull level if they win both games in hand, remain the favourites, but a side who lead the division with 42 goals scored, and who beat the previous leaders, Napoli, 3-0 in their own stadium last month, earned the right to be viewed as the No 1 contender.

“We’ve got the 40 points. We need to avoid relegation now,” joked Gasperini on Sunday but his players could not hide their ambition. “I try to improve myself every year,” said Lookman, “to become a better version of myself. The same goes for our whole team.”