That Napoli won in Milan by their widest ever margin owed everything to Lorenzo Insigne, who set up the first and then went on to score the next two

Italy celebrated La Festa dei Nonni on Friday, an occasion set aside for honouring grandparents. Two days later, Sampdoria got in on the act by inviting their more senior season-ticket holders to lead the teams out at the start of their match against Internazionale. The jokes wrote themselves as Antonio Cassano, looking a whole lot more than his 33 years, shuffled off the bench to make a 15-minute cameo for the hosts at the end of the subsequent 1-1 draw.

But this was not a weekend dominated by Serie A’s senior citizens. In fact, it was one in which youthful exuberance held sway. Sampdoria’s goal was set up by the 17-year-old full-back Pedro Pereira and headed home by his 24-year-old team-mate Luis Muriel. Elsewhere, Carpi upset Torino with the help of a strike from Ryder Matos, 22, before Paulo Dybala and Álvaro Morata set Juventus on the way to a much-needed win over Bologna.

And then came Lorenzo Insigne. One might easily imagine Napoli’s featherweight fantasista to be older, given that he is married, father to two children and has been playing regularly in the top flight for four years, but he only celebrated his 24th birthday this past summer.

Fiorentina push Internazionale off top in Serie A by beating Atalanta Read more

He had already shone through Napoli’s first six league games of this season, scoring against Juventus, Lazio and Empoli. At San Siro on Sunday he was even better, the man of the match in a 4-0 rout of Milan.

Never before had Napoli defeated the Rossoneri by such a wide margin in Serie A. Not since the days of Diego Maradona had they even put this many goals past Milan in a match. That they did so on this occasion owed everything to Insigne, who set up the first and then went on to score the next two.

There were not yet 15 minutes gone when Cristián Zapata gifted possession to Marek Hamsik inside the Milan half. Insigne, whose pressing had caused the defender to rush his pass in the first place, turned to receive the ball from his team-mate and then jagged in from the left wing before rolling it invitingly into the path of Allan, who drove into the bottom corner. They had combined for an almost identical goal during Napoli’s 5-0 rout of Lazio last month.

Insigne doubled Napoli’s lead in the 48th minute, after a gorgeous one-two with Gonzalo Higuaín. The free-kick he scored to make it 3-0 was even better, whipped over the wall and swinging away from the goalkeeper Diego López, who could only help it into the net.

Milan’s supporters took a pause from berating their own team to offer Insigne an ovation when he was withdrawn not long afterwards. Some might quietly have been looking forward to having him on their side during the forthcoming international window.

Insigne has not played for Italy since last year’s World Cup but was named last week in the squad for the upcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Norway. Antonio Conte was on hand at San Siro to witness this latest barnstorming performance and might be tempted to insert the Napoli player straight into an attack that only managed one goal against each of Malta and Bulgaria.

On form alone, it would be hard to exclude him. Insigne has now applied either the assist or the finishing touch on eight of the 16 Serie A goals Napoli have scored this season. Initially deployed by the new manager, Maurizio Sarri, as a No10, he showed promise there but has been even more effective since being nudged back out to the left of attack as the Partenopei transitioned over to a 4-3-3.

It all feels like a very far cry from the start of last season, when a section of the club’s support turned against Insigne. Whistled as he left the pitch after being substituted during the home leg of Napoli’s Champions League play-off against Athletic Bilbao, he responded by gesturing back at the stands and then throwing off his shirt.

The crowd was frustrated at him for missing a key chance that evening but some fans had also been upset by his rejection of an invitation to say a few words in Neapolitan dialect during the Partenopei’s squad presentation a few days earlier.

There was speculation at the time that Insigne, raised in Frattamaggiore, on the outskirts of Naples, was struggling with the pressure of representing the club he had supported as a boy. Despite giving glimpses of his talent, he had not yet become the consistent goalscorer and creator the club had envisaged after two prolific seasons on loan with the Zdenek Zeman-coached Foggia and Pescara.

The situation was not helped by an intervention from his wife, Jenny Darone, who responded to the Bilbao incident by posting on Instagram with the message: “You don’t deserve him at Napoli.” But Insigne insists he never thought of moving on, pointing out that he, as a lifelong fan himself, understands supporters’ sentiments better than most.

He had been heckled at the Stadio San Paolo before, and said a few months earlier that: “I know that the whistles towards me are whistles of love. I am a son of this city and this city expects a lot of me … We are a very proud people and we want those who represent us to do a good job of it.”

Napoli’s supporters would dearly love for Insigne to succeed, becoming their very own Francesco Totti – in symbolic terms, if not in playing style. Just as with the Roma forward, Insigne is not only from the city he represents but very much of that city as well. He is proud to be called “scugnizzo” – a word used in Naples to define a particular kind of cheeky, savvy youngster who gets up to mischief in the streets.

A story he told to Sportweek magazine suggests he did, indeed, fit that bill. As a teenager he would often serve as a ballboy for Napoli’s first-team games but when not chosen to do so for a game against Sampdoria he and another ticketless friend snuck in to the Stadio San Paolo anyway. “I told him, ‘OK, we’ll stay here and try to sneak in with the ballboys,’” recalled Insigne. “But there was no need. Ten minutes before the start they opened the gates and we managed to get in with the rest of the crowd.”

Standing at only 5ft 3in, Insigne might be just as capable of getting lost in a throng if he wanted to today. Instead, he stepped out on to centre stage at La Scala del Calcio on Sunday night and showed us all how good he can be.

Talking points

• Fiorentina are now all alone in first place, beating Atalanta 3-0 on Sunday night. Paulo Sousa said afterwards that there are “better teams than ours” but I’m not sure there were any better goals in Italy than the volley Joan Verdú scored off Nikola Kalinic’s flicked assist at the end. The Viola really have looked the business these past few weeks but they do have a pair of daunting fixtures to look forward to after the international break, playing Napoli away and Roma at home with a Europa League fixture in between.

• Hello again, Gervinho. Brilliant in his first year in Rome but then alternately absent or anonymous last season, he appears to be back in the former mode. Both his first and second goals against Palermo were extremely well taken and he now has four in his last three games. The run of form is well timed, coinciding with injury absences for Edin Dzeko and Francesco Totti.

• Sassuolo’s run as the last unbeaten team in Serie A is at an end. In keeping with this thoroughly unpredictable season, their first defeat came against modest Empoli, who were playing without Ricky Saponara and who finished the game with 10 men. It was a doubly disappointing day for Domenico Berardi, who suffered an injury in the warm-up and might now have to forego his first call-up to the senior Italy team.

• Miss of the year from Joaquin Correa?

• Also featuring on this week’s blooper reel, Daniele Padelli, with a really quite unfortunate own goal. That would be the same Padelli who did this last season.

• Still, Padelli’s blushes worked out well for Carpi – who now have their first-ever Serie A win. This in their first match under the new manager, Beppe Sannino. Fans did not respond well to news of Fabrizio Castori’s sacking at the start of last week, believing that the man who got them promoted to this division had deserved more time. Time will tell if this was just a fortunate result or a sign that the club was indeed right to make a change.

Results Carpi 2-1 Torino, Chievo 1-1 Verona, Empoli 1-0 Sassuolo, Fiorentina 3-0 Atalanta, Juventus 3-1 Bologna, Lazio 2-0 Frosinone, Milan 0-4 Napoli, Palermo 2-4 Roma, Sampdoria 1-1 Inter, Udinese 1-1 Genoa