The Spalletti era was not 90 seconds old when Juventus took the lead – Loïs Openda latched onto a pass into the area, and though his backheel failed to find Dušan Vlahović, a deflection took it into the path of Filip Kostić, who finished in style.
With 20 minutes on the clock, Vlahović turned his marker superbly and unleashed an effort on goal, which Emil Audero was equal to, and five minutes on, the home goalkeeper had to be at full stretch to divert a Manuel Locatelli shot onto the post, as the Bianconeri dominated.
The new manager made just two enforced changes to the side that beat Udinese in midweek, and that decision appeared justified as Juve continued to create, but they couldn’t add to their lead before the break, as Vlahović and Locatelli had efforts from range, and Openda fired a brace of chances narrowly wide, while Cremonese conjured up nothing to trouble Michele Di Gregorio in the visitors’ goal.
The Grigiorossi began the second half showing the attacking intent that had built their impressive start to the campaign, putting together a sustained spell of pressure as their best chance fell to Tommaso Barbieri, but his powerful drive was deflected over the crossbar.
However, Juventus were soon back on top, and after a stretching Vlahović failed to turn home Weston McKennie’s square pass, the visitors doubled their lead with a quarter of the match to go.
Francisco Conceição used his pace on the right before driving the ball low into the area, and again Cremonese failed to clear and instead could only divert the ball to Andrea Cambiaso, whose finish had just too much on it for Audero.
But seven minutes from time, Davide Nicola’s side had hope when Jamie Vardy shrugged off the Juve defence and steered in his second of the season.
In the end, that wasn’t enough to prevent a first home league defeat since February for Cremonese, as Juventus remain unbeaten in H2H matches since 1923.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Filip Kostić (Juventus)