Sassuolo vs Napoli

Mid-table Sassuolo will be looking to stage what would be a massive midweek upset when they take on Serie A leaders Napoli at the Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore.

Though their recent Serie A form reads indifferently (W3, D2, L3), a massive, come-from-behind 3-1 win at AC Milan at the weekend suggests Sassuolo are not playing around. Another victory here would see ‘I Neroverdi’ become only the second team in the last eight Serie A seasons to beat the likes of Juventus, Milan, and Napoli in the first half of a new top-flight campaign. Though they’ve only beaten ‘I Partenopei’ once in eight Serie A home H2Hs (D4, L3), they avoided defeat in both last season’s duels (W1, D1), netting 2+ goals on each occasion. Alessio Dionisi’s men will be confident of adding to that tally here after bagging over 1.5 goals in two of their last three Serie A home outings, having scored one or less in their opening four in the competition at home.

On the other hand, Napoli bounced back from a 3-2 derby defeat to Inter Milan a fortnight ago almost instantaneously, dismantling Lazio 4-0 at home at the weekend. Worryingly, though, after going unbeaten in their first eight competitive away matches this season (W6, D2), ‘I Partenopei’ have lost the last two in a row. They’ve at least been fun to watch on the road of late, with each of their last three competitive away games seeing over 2.5 goals and both teams scoring. That said, Luciano Spalletti’s men have been hard to penetrate this season as they head into proceedings as the only Serie A team yet to concede double digits (7). But it’s worth noting that five 71% of their league goals shipped so far this term have come on the road (5/7).