With Roma hosting table-topping Napoli on Sunday (kick-off: 18:00 CEST), we have all the pre-match preamble you need.

NAPOLI

League position: 1st
Head coach: Luciano Spalletti
Serie A top-scorer: Victor Osimhen (5)

RECENT FORM

Roma: L W W L L
Napoli: W L W W W

The Giallorossi go into their meeting with the league leaders on the back of what was a chastening Europa Conference League defeat in Norway on Thursday.

A much-changed Roma side will again be reimagined to meet Napoli and head coach Jose Mourinho will demand a reaction from his players, who have been somewhat inconsistent since winning each of their first six matches under the Portuguese.

Two-time former Roma boss Spalletti has maintained his own perfect start to the campaign, winning all eight of their Serie A matches so far.

It’s a quite incredible perfect record for the men from Naples, who are currently sitting pretty at the top of the division.

Possible Napoli line-up

(4-3-3)

Ospina; Di Lorenzo, Koulibaly, Rrahmani, Mario Rui; Zielinski, Ruiz, Anguissa; Politano, Osimhen, Insigne

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Victor Osimhen

The Nigeria international hit 10 goals in 30 appearances across all competitions in his first season.

In comparison, he has nine in 10 games overall already in 2021-22, five in seven in Serie A and four in three in the Europa League.

It’s safe to say the 22-year-old is living up to his price tag and he is gleefully shouldering more responsibility in front of goal at the start of his second year in Italy.

That has eased the burden usually placed on captain Lorenzo Insigne, who has teed up a third of Osimhen’s goals thus far and the pair make for a potent double act in the final third.

MATCH STATS

Napoli have only drawn more top-flight matches with Torino (55) than they have with Roma, who have the edge in this fixture - having won 52 times to Napoli’s 46 victories.

There hasn't, however, been a draw in the last nine league meetings at the Stadio Olimpico and the last draw in the capital came in 2013.

Roma have won each of their last six Serie A home games, their longest run since a 15-game streak came to an end in February 2017.

Napoli have never won all nine of their first nine Serie A games in a campaign and only two Italian teams have ever done so; Juventus (nine in 2005-06) and Roma (10 in 2013-14).

PLAYER STATS

• Mourinho has never lost against Spalletti (W3, D1), with the now Roma boss meeting his counterpart four times when the Italian was in the Giallorossi dugout.
  
• Among the forwards of the seven Italian sides that play in European competitions in 2021-22, Tammy Abraham has played the most minutes in Serie A (688).
  
• After the international break in September, only Karim Benzema (seven) and Erling Haaland (six) have scored more goals than Osimhen (five) in the big five European Leagues.
  
• Insigne has been involved in four goals and three assists in his last eight matches against AS Roma in Serie A.

WHAT THEY SAID

“Mourinho is always dangerous. Roma are a great team.”

- Napoli coach, Luciano Spalletti