Prior to the start of the 2015/2016 Serie A season, if one were to say that Juventus and Napoli would be in the bottom half of the table after the first five games, certainly, they would have been looked at incredulously. After all, both the Partenopei and la Vecchia Signora finished in the top five last season in the league, and also impressed in continental play with Napoli making it to the semi-finals of the Europa League whilst Juventus featured in the Champions League finals against Barcelona.
However, as things are, Inter are sitting comfortably on top with a perfect five wins out of five whilst Juventus have only earned five points from their first five games. Meanwhile, Napoli have only fared slightly better, with six points, and as such, both Maurizio Sarri and Massimiliano Allegri's squads will be under a great deal of pressure as they clash at the Stadio San Paolo later this evening.
Napoli
Following the departure of Rafa Benitez to Real Madrid, former Empoli boss Sarri was installed as the team's new coach and so far has experienced disappointing results. As they were unable to secure Champions League football, Napoli will again have to try their luck in the Europa League, but for now, more pressing is their performance in domestic competition. Whilst Gonzalo Higuain - who netted 18 in the league and 29 in all competitions - has made a fair start with four goals, Napoli have little to show for their efforts.
Their sole win, a 5-0 thrashing of Lazio was encouraging but they then followed that up with a insipid 0-0 stalemate with Serie A debutants Carpi. And prior to the mauling of the Biancocelesti, they had started their campaign off with a shock 2-1 reversal to Sassuolo, followed by two draws with Sampdoria and Empoli. As such, the team and the manager will be desperate to show that they can get back to winning ways as they prepare to welcome familiar opponent Juventus to their home ground.
Fortunately for Sarri, he will not have any major injury concerns to trouble him, meaning that he can rely on a full-strength squad for this titanic encounter. With ten goals thus far, Napoli are nonetheless one of the more productive sides in the league. So far, five players have found themselves on the scoresheet, showing that the wealth is indeed being spread around equally, and young attacker Lorenzo Insigne has not only been involved in four of his team's ouput (two goals, two assists) but also appears totally reinvigorated under Sarri's tutelage.
Although they have won just one out of their last nine Serie A meetings - a 2-0 result in March 2014 - Napoli do enjoy a significant home field advantage over Juventus. Out of their past eight home games, the Bianconeri have only been able to defeat the Partenopei once, which happened last season as goals from Arturo Vidal, Paul Pogba, and Martin Caceres were enough to nullify Miguel Britos's effort. That also happened to be the first time since 2000 that Juventus were able to leave the Stadio San Paolo with all three points in hand.
Juventus
With one win, two losses, and two draws in their opening five matches, this has by far been the worst start to a season as far as most Juventus fans are concerned. The Bianconeri were shocked on opening day by losing to Udinese - which marked the first time the team had ever lost a season opener at home - and after suffering defeat to Roma, had to settle for a draw against Chievo, a team that they usually had no trouble defeating. Although they appeared to bounce back with a 2-0 win over Genoa, their performance was far from convincing, and in mid-week, they took another huge step backwards by dropping points to newly promoted Frosinone.
Like Napoli, they will also be coming into this match following a frustrating draw against a Serie A debutant, although, given the nature of the result, it surely will feel like a loss. Allegri's task has been made much more difficult not just due to personnel changes, but also the injury crisis that has already struck. Although Alvaro Morata could likely feature after seemingly having recovered from his own injury, the team will be without the likes of Kwadwo Asamoah, Sami Khedira, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Mario Mandzukic, and Claudio Marchisio for this match. And to complicate matters, at least four of these players will not feature during their tough Champions League game with Sevilla coming up this week.
Still, Juventus do have all three points in the bag after a hard-fought win over Manchester City, but Allegri will be expected to be firmly focused on the make-or-break clash with Napoli later today. Despite there being plenty of games remaining, alarm bells have already began sounding as Inter currently boast a ten-point gap at the table's summit and there have already been questions as to whether la Vecchia Signora's title defense has already finished before it even started.
Both teams, following a turbulent week, will be keen on showing their supporters they have what it takes to get back to winning ways. Last season saw Napoli lose this fixture both home and away by 3-1 on each occasion and they surely would relish getting some revenge on the reigning Scudetto champions who are still struggling for form and confidence after a rough start to the season. Meanwhile, Juventus will be hoping to take advantage of their opponents' own inconsistent form to jump-start their campaign and give them a massive confidence-boost ahead of their big match with Sevilla in a few days' time.
Matches between the Partenopei and the Bianconeri have developed into tense clashes in recent times, and calcio fans will not want to miss out on this South vs. North battle! We've got you covered here at LiveSoccerTV.com, so make sure you bookmark our special Napoli vs. Juventus match page for viewing options for your specific location.
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