The Bianconeri boss Luciano Spalletti was expecting the visit of Serie A strugglers Cagliari to be a stroll in the park inside the cauldron of the Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
Once more the 66-year-old stuck with a three-player defense and a lone target man, only juggling his starting line-up from the midweek Champions League thriller with striker Dusan Vlahovic and winger Kenan Yildiz notable new starters.
Yet it was visitors, who arrived in Turin on a winless run of eight games, that drew first blood. Marco Palestra set up forward Sebastiano Esposito, who made no mistake to slot the ball past keeper Mattia Perin and into the bottom right corner for a 26th-minute lead.
The silenced home supporters soon erupted with vocal joy following the restart after the 20-year-old Turkish talent found the back of the net on 27 minutes.
Former Juventus target Elia Caprile denied Vlahovic's ambitious long-range effort, which turned out to be the Serbia attacker's last contribution as he was replaced because of a knock by Jonathan David just after the half-hour mark.
Caprile stopped Francisco Conceicao's header and watched a shot from Weston McKennie sail over the crossbar before picking the ball out of net in the opening minute of stoppage time. Yildiz hit the target from the middle of the penalty area to send Juventus into the interval with a slender yet deserved lead.
Box-to-box thrills in Turin
Andrea Cambiaso was thrown on to tackle the second half, which got off to a frentic start with end-to-end action. Esposito picked out Michael Folorunsho, who drove his shot wide, and on the counterattack Conceicao forced Caprile into another save before Teun Koopmeiners sent his left-footer narrowly wide of the gaping goalmouth.
Cagliari manager Fabio Pisacane, a former defender who was appointed on a one-year deal last summer, made a like-for-like double substitution on 53 minutes with defender Riyad Idrissi and midfielder Matteo Prati introduced.
Idrissi came perilously close to snatching an equalizer just five minutes after joining the action, only for Perin to prevent the shot from nestling into the bottom left corner and giving away a corner.
Cagliari were bossing the second half, and for Spalletti this seemed to a deja vu of recent matches against Cremonese and Bodo/Glimt when the contests were a proverbial game of two halves. Juve collected victories in those two clashes, but being pegged back and constantly conceding corners meant they needed to crank up their game.
Predictable play from Spalletti's Juve
Spalletti's spluttering start to life as Juventus head coach had resulted in two wins and three draws before hosting the Sardinia side in Turin. His tactics have become predictable, and produced underwhelming displays with the exceptional of their toothless Champions League draw against Sporting Lisbon.
The Juve manager looked relieved on the sidelines with 20 minutes to go, when he brought on midfielder Fabio Miretti and saw Pisacane surprisingly withdraw livewire Espositio with Mattia Felici hurled into action.
Conceicao skied one shot and was denied by Caprile as the hosts started to step up a gear, willed on by their legend of fans.
Pisacane sensed Juve's urgency to kill of the contest by making another double substitution. Attacking midfielder Gianluca Gaetano and center forward Semih Kilicsoy were given nine minutes to make some sort of difference.
Yildiz ineffective after the interval
Spalletti swiftly brought on defender Juan Cabal for Conceicao to combat any threatening attacks. While first-half hero Yildiz, man-marked out of the game after the turnaround, made way for Lois Openda.
The closing stages became a midfield battle, with Juve deliberately slowing things down to edge the precious points for their sixth triumph in 13 Serie A matches.
Cagliari came closest to scoring during added time, but Kilicsoy's header was blocked in the penalty area.
Spalletti's tactics still need tweaking as a matter of urgency, otherwise Juventus could come a cropper in their remaining three Champions League matches as well as their tricky Serie A run that included a trip to Antonio Conte's Napoli next weekend.
JUVENTUS: Perin - Koopmeiners, Kelly, Kalulu - Kostic (Cambiaso, 45), Locatelli, Thuram (Miretti, 70), McKennie - Yildiz (Openda, 85), Conceicao (Cabal, 85) - Vlahovic (David, 31). Subs: Gatti, Zhegrova, Di Gregorio, Adzic, Mario, Scaglia, Felipe.