guest writer Liam Apicella - After this latest defeat at the hands of Udinese, Cesena’s status as a Serie A club is beginning look more and more precarious.

Massimo Ficcadenti’s strugglers were without a win in seven matches going into this encounter, while after a slow start to the campaign, the visitors from Udine now harbour ambitions of claiming a Champions League berth.

The match got off to a scrappy start with neither side willing to allow their opponents to gain any encouragement during the opening exchanges.

In a rare early venture forward, Cesena forward Erjon Bogdani found himself unmarked inside the area but goalkeeper Samir Handanovic was out quickly to smother the opportunity.

It took the much sought after Alexis Sanchez 41 minutes to have his first impact in the fixture, but what an impact. The Chilean’s trickery and pace saw him hauled down just outside the area and from the resultant free-kick Antonio Di Natale made no mistake.

Hosts Cesena controlled large parts of the second half, but their lack of cutting edge would prove to be the deciding factor.

A cutting edge is something that Udinese are currently not lacking, although the goal that doubled their advantage in the 69th minute came from an unlikely source.

Di Natale did the leg work, drawing out defenders before setting up Gokhan Inler. The Swiss international took a neat touch before firing past Francesco Antonioli from the edge of the penalty are.

And just six minutes later the game was put beyond the reach of the home side. Twenty-two year old Mauricio Isla exchanged passes with substitute Almen Abdi before crossing into the area where Di Natale was waiting for a simple tap in.

The Italian’s second of the afternoon was his eighteenth of the season and he now finds himself second in the goalscoring charts.

For Cesena, the writing is beginning to rapidly appear on the wall.