Stevan Jovetic bagged a brace as Fiorentina cruised to a comfortable Serie A victory at Novara.
Jovetic was on target in either half to take his tally for the season to nine while Riccardo Montolivo also weighed in with his first of the campaign as Novara meekly surrendered at Stadio Silvio Piola.
The win was La Viola's first in four league outings and moves them into the top half of the standings, while defeat for Novara means the promoted side have now won just one of their last 14 in the league and they remain mired in the relegation zone, six points from safety.
Fiorentina went ahead with their first meaningful chance of the afternoon, Matteo Centurioni bringing down Jovetic in the area in the 20th minute and the striker picked himself up to fire the spot-kick into the bottom-left corner.
Jovetic nearly made it two on 33 minutes when his drilled shot from outside the area flashed just wide of the right-hand post, but the next goal was not much longer in coming and arrived three minutes before the interval.
Juan Vargas was at the heart of the move that led to the goal, threading the ball through for Montolivo to drill a shot high into the right corner of Samir Ujkani's net.
Fiorentina wrapped up the scoring after 49 minutes, Adem Ljaljic sending over a cross that Jovetic picked up and tucked into the bottom-right corner.
The visitors continued to boss the game for the remainder of the second half, and although Vargas twice went close and Jovetic spurned the chance for a hat-trick with a close-range miss after 65 minutes, Novara's backline escaped without further punishment.
