Serie A champions Juventus sent out a warning to their title rivals with a 4-0 demolition of Parma on Sunday.
Juve maintained third place overall on 29 points, one behind AS Roma and AC Milan.
Fourth-placed Inter Milan recorded their sixth consecutive Serie A victory with a 2-0 success against Bologna, while Lazio won 1-0 away at lowly Ancona.
Consecutive league defeats against Inter and Lazio had sparked talk of a crisis at Juventus and their game against fifth-placed Parma posed another stumbling block to their title defence.
The 7-0 midweek thrashing of Olympiakos in the Champions League, however, boosted morale and coach Marcello Lippi kept his promise of using only in-form players, omitting striker Alessandro Del Piero in favour of an attacking partnership of Marco Di Vaio and Fabrizio Miccoli.
The decision paid off after just 10 minutes when Miccoli steered Pavel Nedved's cross past Parma keeper Sebastien Frey.
The ex-Perugia striker doubled Juve's advantage in the 31st minute, firing home from the edge of the area.
Parma looked toothless in the second half and Del Piero took only two minutes to find the net after coming on in the 68th minute. He then set up Nedved for Juve's fourth.
At Bologna's Dall'Ara stadium Inter allowed the home side the lion's share of possession before using the speed of 19-year-old striker Obafemi Martins to hit them on the break.
Martins put the visitors ahead in the 29th minute, racing on to a Kily Gonzalez cross to score.
Ten minutes later Alvaro Recoba made it 2-0, beating Bologna's offside trap before dribbling round keeper Gianluca Pagliuca and stroking the ball into an empty net.
Lazio, meanwhile, appeared to be suffering a hangover from their midweek Champions League exit when they took on bottom-placed Ancona.
Roberto Mancini's attack lacked precision and his defence survived a number of scares as strikers Marco Esposito and Milan Rapaic threatened to give the home side their first win of the season.
The match remained deadlocked until the 75th minute, when midfielder Fabio Liverani lifted a perfectly-weighted lob over Ancona keeper Alessio Scarpi.
Elsewhere, goals by midfielders Stefano Mauri and Luigi Di Biagio gave Brescia a 2-0 win over Empoli -- only their second win of the season.
Reggina and Chievo Verona remain in the lower half of the table after their match finished goalless.
Roma play Modena later today.
AC Milan's match against Siena has been postponed until January 28 because of Sunday's World Club Cup match against Boca Juniors.