Serie A finally resumes after the winter break as round 19 gets underway and Napoli will be looking to kick on from where they left off as they host 13th placed Sampdoria at the Stadio San Paolo in Saturday’s late kick off, a fixture brought forward a day due to Napoli’s involvement in the Coppa Italia against Spezia on Tuesday.



Many would argue that despite the 3-3 draw with Fiorentina prior to the league shutdown, the break had come too soon for a Napoli side who had found form and it most certainly had come too soon for Dries Mertens who has 8 goals to his name in his last 3 Serie A outings.

With Roma and Lazio, the sides currently residing in 2nd and 4th place respectively, not in action until Sunday afternoon, the partenopei have the chance to draw level with the giallorossi while extending their lead over Simone Inzaghi’s side.





Napoli come into the game on a run of 10 games without defeat consisting of 5 wins and 5 draws, however 4 of those 5 wins have come in their last 5 games as Inter, Benfica, Cagliari, and Torino were swept aside before the aforementioned draw with Fiorentina.

After suffering their first home defeat under Sarri when Besiktas completed their Naples smash & grab in the Champions League back in October, the Vesuviani have returned the San Paolo to being somewhere near the fortress it has always been renowned as. In their last three home games, Napoli have scored nine times, with six of those goals coming in the first half and four in the second.

When looking at the spread of those first half goals, you can see exactly how Napoli have brought the fear factor back to their ground; two have come in the opening ten minutes, with three coming in minutes 10 to 25, and a single strike in the remainder of the half just before the interval. Simply put, in recent fixtures Napoli have blown the opposition away before they’ve had a chance to settle, and Sampdoria must be wary of a similar start from a well-rested Napoli side on Saturday night.





Sampdoria come into the game having limped into the winter break without a win in 3 games; back to back 2-1 defeats to Lazio and Chievo followed by a home draw with Udinese.

However what will concern Sampdoria fans most of all is that they simply do not travel well and have one of the worst away records in Serie A this season, with just a single win from their nine fixtures on the road; their solitary win coming back in August on the opening day of the season thanks to a narrow 1-0 victory over Empoli.

Scoring goals away from the Marassi has also been an issue for Marco Giampaolo’s side, only once this season have they managed to score more than a single goal and even then they lost the game; 3-2 away to Roma.

Where Sampdoria will take some form of encouragement however is from the decimation of Napoli’s backline through a combination of international call ups and illness. Three of Napoli’s first choice back four will miss the match, with Kalidou Koulibaly and Faouzi Ghoulam currently taking part in the African Cup of Nations and Elseid Hysaj doubtful with flu.

As such, Napoli will line up with Maggio and Strinic in the full back positions and any two from Maksimovic, Chiriches, Albiol, and the forgotten man of Naples, Lorenzo Tonelli in the centre of defence.

Despite this, it is a game that Napoli will be looking to win due to home advantage and even if Sampdoria do manage to penetrate the Napoli defence more than once, the home side should have far too much firepower for the visitors to handle even without the fit again Arkaduisz Milik and new signing Leonardo Pavoletti.

Predicted line-ups:

Napoli (4-3-3): Reina, Maggio, Chiriches, Albiol, Strinic, Jorginho, Hamsik, Zielinski, Insigne, Mertens, Callejon

James McGhie (@jrmcghie)