Exiled Roma captain Francesco Totti watched from the stands as the Giallorossi enjoyed an emphatic Serie A victory over Palermo without him.
The 39-year-old striker has barely featured this season and found himself cut from the squad completely after publicly criticising head coach Luciano Spalletti.
And Roma more than proved they can cope without their talisman. Edin Dzeko atoned for a glaring first-half miss with a goal in each half, with Seydou Keita and Mohamed Salah - providing his own acrobatic brace - propelling the capital club towards a resounding 5-0 win and above Inter Milan into fourth place.
Third-placed Fiorentina maintained their own pursuit of the title as a late flurry of goals downed 10-man Atalanta 3-2 in Bergamo.
The first of five strikes arrived in the 67th minute as Mati Fernandez gave the Tuscans the upper hand, with Barcelona loanee Cristian Tello firing Fiorentina two goals clear nine minutes from time.
Atalanta refused to roll over and halved the deficit through young defender Andrea Conti, who would later be dismissed in stoppage time.
Substitute Nikola Kalinic then grabbed what proved to be Fiorentina's winner and Mauricio Pinilla wrapped up the scoring with Atalanta's second at the death.
Sassuolo relaunched their bid for Europa League football by edging out Empoli, also by a 3-2 scoreline.
Domenico Berardi's first-half strike and a brace from Gregoire Defrel were enough to negate the effect of Piotr Zielinski's goal for Empoli and a late Massimo Maccarone penalty.
Both sides had a player sent off with Simone Missiroli walking for Sassuolo and Lorenzo Tonelli seeing red for Empoli before half-time.
Genoa pulled clear of the drop zone with an overdue 2-1 win over Udinese at the Marassi.
Ali Adnan opened the scoring for the Bianconeri but Genoa responded with an Alessio Cerci penalty and Diego Laxalt's goal.
Veteran striker Antonio Di Natale could have snatched a point for Udinese in stoppage time, but Mattia Perin saved his penalty.
Elsewhere, Maxi Lopez missed a late spot-kick for Torino as relegation-threatened Carpi ground out a goalless draw in Turin and there was a stalemate between Frosinone and Lazio at Stadio Matusa.
Source: PA
