It’s still only February and there are 15 rounds of Serie A matches remaining but fans in the city of Naples are, finally, daring to dream.
Sure, there have been dreams before, not least on occasions between 2015-19, when they were Serie A runners-up in three out of four seasons and went tantalisingly close to the title under Maurizio Sarri, particularly in 2018 when they claimed a club record total of 91 points.
Yet the fact remains that Napoli have never won the title without the late, great Diego Maradona, with their two triumphs – in 1986-87 and 1989-90 – both coming during his spell there.
The genuine optimism this term is now firmly a reality, however, and with a firm foundation laid from the back and attacking play drawing the plaudits from across Europe, Luciano Spalletti’s team are being talked about as Italian champions-elect.
Now let me go back to my first point in that there is still plenty of football to be played.
So, with the age-old ethos of ‘one game at a time’, Napoli again did their bit with a routine away victory over Sassuolo.
They took the lead after only 12 minutes through one of their unsung heroes as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia fired low into the corner after a fine run.
Then, after surviving a scare when Armand Lauriente struck the post for the hosts, a striker whose name is becoming as prolific as his record, netted in the seventh successive league game.
Victor Osimhen, who had earlier hit the woodwork, is spearheading their attack and here was another moment to add to his own personal Serie A 2023 highlights collection.
The Nigerian striker came off with six minutes remaining and looked concerned as he spoke to the Napoli staff, pointing to his thigh and grimacing a little.
However, the 24-year-old, who is proving one of the most deadly marksman in Europe, shared some good news after the match to ease the worries of any his fans.
Inter Milan remain Napoli’s closest challengers, some 15 points behind, following a hard-fought 3-1 home win over Udinese.
It provided some revenge for the Nerazzurri who had lost by the same scoreline to the same opponents earlier in the campaign.
On a weekend tinged with sadness for many, Romelu Lukaku dedicated his opening goal at the San Siro to former teammate Christian Atsu, a former Everton team-mate who has lost his life in the Turkey-Syria earthquake tragedy.
The Belgian forward opened the scoring with his first goal in the stadium 636 days (that spell includes a season at Chelsea) – a re-taken penalty after the first effort that was actually saved was ruled invalid due to encroachment.
Just before half-time, the battling visitors were level when a Roberto Pereyra-led counter-attack resulted in Sandi Lovric’s effort finding the roof of the net via a slight deflection off Matteo Darmian.
With home frustration growing, it took a moment of magic for Inter to regain the lead with 17 minutes remaining as Henrikh Mkhitaryan swept in a fine first-time strike from the edge of the box.
The win was finally secured in stoppage time when Lautaro Martinez held off a defender to smash home a third.
That kept Inter ahead of their city rivals, defending champions Milan, as they faced the club owned and run by the men who were at the helm during their most successful period in the late 1980s and 1990s,
Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani ran Milan for more than 30 years and are now attempting to bring joy to Monza enjoying their first season in the Italian top flight in their 110-year history.
In the end, a goal after half hour from Junior Messias sealed Milan’s third consecutive 1-0 victory in all competitions, while the home side were denied twice by the woodwork during one attack in the second half as their unbeaten run since the turn of the year came to an end.
At the other end of the table, Sampdoria remain in trouble after a late defeat at home to Bologna, while Salernitana and managerless Spezia showed spirit but were undone by too much quality from Lazio and Juventus respectively.
In the case of the former, Ciro Immobile scored twice in nine second-half minutes to move Lazio up to fifth, while Juventus won by the same scoreline with Moise Kean and Angel Di Maria on target.
The result which surprised me and the SBOTOP Serie A 2023 betting odds the most saw Lecce win 2-1 at Atalanta to move 10 points clear of the drop zone.
The final contest of the weekend saw Roma overcome the loss of Tammy Abraham early on to an eye injury to defeat Hellas Verona.
If the visitors can play more like this, they will have a decent chance of climbing out of the bottom three.
Of course, they have to score and Roma showed them the way with the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time as Ola Solbakken netted his first goal for the club, ending Verona’s five-match unbeaten run in the process.
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