Napoli have made an excellent start to the 2020-21 Serie A campaign, with victories against Parma and Genoa.
Gino Gattuso’s side hammered Genoa 6-0 at the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday with five different goalscorers. This fixture last season ended 0-0. This weekend’s game itself was delayed for three hours after it had been revealed opposition goalkeeper Mattia Perin had tested positive for Covid.
In this season’s opener, Napoli were 2-0 winners away to Parma. Although the opponents are much changed from last season and potentially in for a relegation battle this time around, Parma did the double over Gattuso’s side last campaign.
Napoli have therefore taken six points from fixtures they only took one from last campaign, when they finished seventh, having previously finished in the top three for four consecutive seasons.
Gli Azzurri have already had six different goalscorers in two games – Dries Mertens, Hirving Lozano, Piotr Zielinski, Eljif Elmas, Lorenzo Insigne and Matteo Politano.
They could do with all the goalscorers they can get this weekend as Napoli travel to Turin to take on the defending champions, Juventus. The Old Lady have started the season with four points from their two games – drawing 2-2 away to AS Roma this past weekend.
Juventus have taken a big gamble with the appointment of rookie head coach Andrea Pirlo. Although they have the strongest squad in the league and have won the Scudetto for the past nine consecutive seasons, the competition is getting closer.
AC Milan and Internazionale continue to strengthen their squads with a number of signings this summer, although Napoli have not been as active so far, with less than a week of the window to go.
Victor Osimhen is the only new arrival in Naples so far, and has made an impressive start to life in Serie A. However, both Jose Callejon and Allan have departed.
Keeping hold of Kalidou Koulibaly may be the best business Napoli could do this summer, with interest from Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Manchester United.
The rest of the first team remains strong, especially with Lozano starting to settle in now. Piotr Zielinski is one of the stars in Italy and , Arkadiusz Miluk, Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens are reliable for goals in attack.
However, Gattuso himself doesn’t have the best of records as a head coach. He lasted just eight games in charge of Palermo, and his season-and-a-half in charge of AC Milan saw the Italian giants finish 6th and 5th before he was dismissed.
This weekend’s trip to Juventus will give us a better idea where both Napoli and the reigning champions are. Can Gattuso get an impressive result at the Allianz Stadium, even maintain their 100% winning start, and had Juventus a big title blow in the process?
Rivals Inter have already made their statement of intent this season, with the arrivals of Alexis Sanchez, Achraf Hakimi, Nicolo Barella and Arturo Vidal, among others. Meanwhile, AC Milan have acquired Sandro Tonali, Simon Kjaer, Ante Rebic and Brahim Diaz.
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