Atalanta has progressed this season but more is to be done, and they can't finish more than the top 5 based on my analysis. And I must say that am only neutral about what happened to Joakim Maehle yesterday, the harsh punishment could still be avoided by both him and the ref, it's judgemental in my thought and anyone could have done it better.
Also, I see no desperation in that other than he's doing his job, and that was what he could resolve at that moment, though seems unnecessary to many.
Atalanta is thriving. In terms of seeing the start of the season, I agree, but looking at the current conditions, isn't it the same as they were last season, which means that they haven't been able to return to the performance of the previous few seasons.
This defeat against Sasuolo is a very real loss, thrown into 6th place now and they have to lose 2 players in a pretty tough match next week because facing Lazio is clearly not profitable for them.