Fiorentina came into the game having won just two of their last five matches, which has seen them slip off the pace slightly in the exciting Serie A title race. Udinese, meanwhile, had tasted victory just once in their last nine outings.
With the respective form of both sides in mind, a quick start was vital to regain some confidence, and it was the hosts who were presented with the opportunity to do so when Thomas Kristensen brought down Riccardo Sottil inside the area.
Moise Kean stepped up and made no mistake from the penalty spot to give La Viola the lead after only eight minutes.
The visitors thought they had been awarded a spot-kick of their own with the half-hour approaching, only for VAR to overturn the initial decision.
Jordan Zemura then had an opportunity to draw the Bianconeri level shortly after, but his outstretched effort just cleared the crossbar.
Udinese had performed well in the first half despite trailing at half time, and they were able to draw themselves level just four minutes after the restart when Lorenzo Lucca fired home from inside the area.
The striker is yet to finish on the losing side when scoring in an away fixture across his senior career, and despite hitting the post with an overhead kick two minutes later, this remarkable statistic looked likely to continue.
The visitors hit the front soon after when Florian Thauvin’s left-footed curling effort from 25 yards beat the despairing David de Gea, finding the left-hand corner and sending the travelling fans into delirium.
Kean fired agonisingly wide of the right post with his first-time shot from just inside the area as Fiorentina searched for an equaliser, before a loose ball just won the race to the byline as he looked to sneak it in at the near post.
The hosts tried everything to find a late leveller, but Le Zebrette did enough to hold on for an impressive victory that strengthens their position inside the top half, while La Viola miss the chance to close the gap on the top four heading into Christmas.