Roma's new defensive responsibility sends them top of Serie A

Roma have now won four league games on the bounce, scoring 14 goals in the process, and if they can add to that incisiveness in attack by consistently defending like they did on Sunday they have enough to think seriously about their first Serie A title in 15 years.

If there's one word that you wouldn't have used to describe Roma up to now, it's "disciplined." A series of shoddy defensive displays left many fans unconvinced of their title credentials and led to early talk of coach Rudi Garcia being sacked.

However, there'll be no more of that after Sunday's superb 2-1 win at fellow Scudetto challengers Fiorentina, which saw the Romans move top of Serie A on 20 points after their best, and most disciplined, display of the season so far.

Fiorentina old boy Mohamed Salah -- who was harangued from the kickoff by the home fans livid at his controversial summer loan signing for Roma from Chelsea after five months in Florence last season -- and Gervinho won the game for Roma, but for all the swiftness and elegance of their counter-attacking, it was their ruggedness and organisation in defence that impressed.

Garcia had seen his side concede 10 goals in their opening eight league games against relatively weak opposition, while their structure in the Champions League was no better. The embarrassing 3-2 defeat at BATE Borisov and 4-4 draw at Bayer Leverkusen, where they had been leading 4-2 with six minutes to go having come back from an early 2-0 deficit, had left observers wondering what on earth had happened to a defence that last season conceded fewer goals than any other team bar champions Juventus.

"We played as team, we were solid in defence and broke well," Radja Nainggolan told Sky Italia. "We scored twice and could have scored more. We're really happy with how we played.

"After the disappointment at Leverkusen, the important thing was to defend well, stay tight as a unit and counter-attack well. I think we did that."