Napoli and Roma Battle to Stay with Juventus

This weekend sees one of the biggest matches of the season in Serie A to date, as Napoli and Roma meet at the Stadio San Paolo.  It’s never easy for club managers, with players coming back from all corners of the world following international duty and one man who has been particularly effected, is Maurizio Sarri, of Napoli.

The big news coming out of Naples, is the potential long term absence of striker Arkadiusz Milik, who picked up a knee injury while playing for Poland in the World Cup qualifiers. The 22-year-old, who joined Napoli from Ajax in the summer, has made a great start to life in Serie A, as he attempts to fill the void left by Gonzalo Higuain, who made the move to Juventus.  With 7 goals, so far this season, including double strikes against Milan and Bologna in Serie A and Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League, Milik settled into Italian life very nicely and the cruciate ligament injury will come as a huge blow, to both him and Napoli.

It's not the start to a Serie A weekend, which sees second place Napoli, take on third place Roma, Sarri would have hoped for and with Juventus taking on Udinese at home, neither Napoli or Roma can afford to drop points.  As things stand, Juventus are 4 points clear of Napoli, with Roma a further point adrift. If, as expected, Juventus claim maximum points in their home match against Udinese, only a win for either Napoli or Roma will do, if a serious title race is to develop in Serie A for this first time in years.

Napoli must recover from two blows prior to this match, the loss of Milik and the shock defeat at Atalanta, last time out.  With the Polish striker out, it will fall upon Manolo Gabbiadini to come in and get the goals, a player who was seemingly on his way out of the club in the summer.  Sarri will also be looking towards Jose Callejon, to rediscover the goal scoring form the Spaniard showed at the start of the season, which saw him score 5 goals in as many games.

Luciano Spalletti takes his Roma side to Naples, looking to string back-to-back wins together for the first time in Serie A this season.  Having defeated Inter Milan before the international break, Roma’s players departed on a high and by defeating Inter Milan and Napoli in quick succession, it would send a signal out to Juventus, that the Giallorossi mean business this season.

Unlike his Napoli counterpart, Spalletti has no fresh injury concerns ahead of the match and is likely to stick with the pace of Mohammed Salah in attack, alongside striker, Edin Dzeko.  The Bosnian comes back full of confidence following his brace against Cyprus in the World Cup qualifiers and the goal he scored against Inter Milan, prior to the internationals.  Having scored just 8 goals last season, Dzeko already has 5 to his name this campaign and will be looking towards the 20-goal mark, something which Roma will need from him, if they are to challenge at the top of Serie A.

Napoli have failed to defeat Roma in their previous 3 attempts in Serie A and that must change, if they are to keep pace with Juventus.  The Bianconeri will be quietly hoping for a draw and with two teams who seem evenly matched on paper, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see the match end all square.