Salernitana vs Napoli

Reigning Serie A holders Napoli head to the Stadio Arechi to meet basement boys Salernitana.

Salernitana desperately needed a confidence boost in midweek Coppa Italia action, and a 4-0 romping of second-tier Sampdoria at home provided just that. However, their situation in Serie A is precarious, to say the least, following the club’s embarrassing ten-game winless start (D4, L6). Replacing Paulo Sousa with Filippo Inzaghi after the first eight rounds has yet to produce the desired effect, with ‘Granata’ following up a 2-2 home draw against Cagliari on the latter’s touchline debut with a disheartening 1-0 defeat at Genoa last week. With only Empoli (3) netting fewer Serie A goals than Salernitana (6) this season, the emphasis remains on Inzaghi’s backline that has conceded an alarming second-high 20 goals thus far. They’re also one of only two sides yet to keep a clean sheet this term.

In the meantime, Napoli performed a phenomenal second-half comeback to cancel out a 2-0 halftime deficit en route to holding AC Milan to a 2-2 home draw last weekend. But they’ve lost further ground on pacesetters Inter Milan, falling seven points behind the summit, as pressure continues to mount on Rudi Garcia amid Napoli’s stuttering Scudetto defense (W5, D3, L2). However, they’ve excelled on the road under the Frenchman, going unbeaten on all five Serie A travels in 2023/24 (W3, D2), including back-to-back multi-goal margin wins in the build-up to this trip. Delivering action from the get-go, ‘I Partenopei’ opened the scoring inside the first 30 minutes in both victories. Another fast start could be crucial, considering they’ve won both previous Serie A visits to Salerno without conceding.