Milan responded through Van Ginkel before Bonaventura pulled a goal back for the away side with a fine solo effort, beating two players and then poking the ball beyond Sassuolo’s goalkeeper. Buoyed by Bonaventura’s goal, the rossoneri came close to levelling the scores on the cusp of half-time only for Consigli to keep out an effort by Honda with a good save.

The equaliser did eventually arrive shortly after the break thanks to a header from centre-back Alex on a Suso cross. With just under 15 minutes remaining though Sassuolo restored their lead and Berardi completed his hat-trick. Here are the stats to emerge from the match:

1- by scoring Milan’s second goal on Sunday, Alex scored his first ever goal for the club.

100- Stephan El Shaarawy reached the milestone of 100 appearances with the Milan jersey by making a second half appearance against Sassuolo. 81 of those appearances have come in Serie A with a total of 19 goals, 13 in the Champions League with 3 goals and 6 in the Italian Cup with 3 goals to his name.

17- Alex became the 17th different Milan player to find the back of the net this season in Serie A.

2- Sunday’s match was the second straight match away from home that Milan have finished the game with at least one player sent off. Versus Sassuolo Bonaventura and Suso were handed their marching orders, while in the previous match on the road, against Napoli, Mattia De Sciglio was the man sent-off.