Atalanta vs Napoli

Gewiss Stadium forms the backdrop for a mouth-watering Serie A top-table six-pointer between second-placed Atalanta and pacesetters Napoli.

Goals on either side of halftime fired Atalanta to a 2-0 win at Empoli last time out, helping them bounce back from a 2-0 home defeat to Lazio and maintain a five-point deficit on Napoli. A piece of unwanted history could be on the cards as ‘La Dea’ may draw a blank in back-to-back home league matches for only the second time under Gian Piero Gasperini’s stewardship. That’s unlikely to happen, though, at least considering they’ve scored in each of their last eight top-flight matches against Napoli. On top of that, the Bergamo outfit have earned double the number of triumphs than ‘I Partenopei’ (W4, D1, L2), suggesting they could knock their visitors off their perch.

Napoli’s club-record 13-game winning streak in all competitions ended in midweek Champions League action as Liverpool outscored Luciano Spalletti’s side 2-0 at Anfield. Back to domestic proceedings, where they’ve won each of their last eight games in a row, ‘I Partenopei’ can make it nine in succession for the first time since 2018. That’s far from a foregone conclusion, considering they’ve blown hot and cold across their four previous Serie A visits to Bergamo (W2, L2). High scoring has been a common theme during that sequence, with three of those four H2H meetings featuring over 2.5 goals and both teams scoring. Topically, three of Napoli’s last four away league matches (W4) have witnessed the same narrative, highlighting the potential for another ‘goal-friendly’ affair. Having lost just one of their 16 away Serie A games in 2022 (W12, D3), the visitors should feel safe and sound.