Neither a midweek defeat to Liverpool, which halted their 13-game winning streak, nor an injury to talismanic Khvicha Kvaratskhelia could prevent Napoli from securing their ninth consecutive Serie A (SA) victory as they beat Atalanta 2-1 on Saturday. Now even coach Luciano Spalletti has admitted that his Napoli side are Scudetto contenders, who he says play attacking football that requires “taking risks”.
The city beside Mount Vesuvius is daring to dream of a first SA title since the times of Diego Armando Maradona, whose namesake stadium will expect no less than an eighth successive competitive home victory. With each of Napoli’s last five such outings witnessing them score 3+ goals whilst eventually winning by at least two on four of those occasions, we might see another straightforward day on the Italian coast when Empoli visit.
Spalletti might be wary of a sting in the tail however, as Empoli surprisingly won both H2Hs last season, including an incredible comeback 3-2 victory in April, despite arriving at the 80th minute 2-0 down. Unfortunately, the Tuscany-based side have picked up only four SA wins since then (D6, L7) and have scored a joint-second league low ten goals this term.
There’s some encouragement in the fact two of those four wins came in their last four league outings (L2) however, including last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Sassuolo which moved Empoli further into mid-table. So whilst it might seem like David versus Goliath, the visitors could be inspired from only one defeat across their last five away top-flight matches (W1, D3) when they arrive on Italy’s south coast.
Players to watch: Victor Osimhen became the most prolific Nigerian striker in SA history with his 32nd goal on Saturday and Napoli have won on each of his last nine goalscoring outings. Empoli will look towards youngster Tommaso Baldanzi, who has scored twice in his last four SA appearances, including the winner last time out.
Hot stat: Napoli have won 11 of their opening 13 SA matches just once before – in 2017/18 when they eventually picked up a club-record 91 points.
