Serie A Title Betting: Is Napoli's challenge back on track?

Napoli will have been surprised to be back on top of Serie A, but the planets seem as if they might aligning for them in their title bid, writes Andy Brassell

Breathe out, fans of aesthetic beauty. It feels like Napoli might just have nipped their mini-wobble in the bud; after being toppled from the Serie A summit and slipping out of the Champions League (although even a positive final day result against Feyenoord wouldn't have saved them, in the end), a better-than-expected weekend leaves Maurizio Sarri's men sitting pretty again.

Napoli will be surprised and delighted to be back on top going into the weekend's matches (not the final ones of the year, of course, because Serie A's delayed winter break means there are two more rounds of fixtures to go in 2017). They gave their best display in some weeks to roll over Torino away, fully capitalising on the unexpected bonus of Inter losing at home to mid-table Udinese to leapfrog I Nerazzurri at the top.

Inter's shock, Napoli take advantage

Nobody saw that coming - it was the first defeat of the season for Luciano Spalletti's team, and by conceding three they let in almost a quarter of their season total goals-against in one afternoon. Napoli will be more concerned with their own game, though. They were close to their bewitching best, especially in the first half, and led 3-0 after half-an-hour.

From the get-go, Napoli were at their most rampant from the moment when Kalilou Koulibaly out them in front. Piotr Zielinski, standing in for the injured Lorenzo Insigne, darted in to get one of his own and the icing on the cake was Marek Hamsik finally getting the strike which allowed him to match Diego Maradona's club record goals total, and in some style too.

Hamsik's history-making the tip of the iceberg

Hamsik's big moment was handled with modesty - "it's the only thing I have in common with Maradona," he bluffed afterwards - which spoke volumes not only for his character, but for the feeling that this squad think there are much bigger things to come. Their quality allows them to be ambitious, as returning to their best perhaps reminded them. Allan and Jorginho were excellent in midfield and despite extending his mini-drought to five games, Dries Mertens put in a fine display, and set up Hamsik's goal.

The ending of their dip puts it into perspective, too. Last season's spell of poor form, a nightmare October, encompassed four defeats and the loss of Arkadiusz Milik to injury, and finished their title challenge there and then. This time, they managed to stay in touch at the top, which allowed them to take advantage of Inter's slip. The injury to star man Insigne has fortunately proven to be a minor one, and he made his comeback as a substitute in Turin. With Napoli's relatively small squad, perhaps the short pause will even do him and the team good in the medium to long-term.

Forgiving fixture list coming up

They also receive Sampdoria at San Paolo just at the point when Marco Giampaolo's shooting stars appear to be fizzling out. They have lost three of the last four in all competitions - and drawn the other one - and looked very flat in the weekend home defeat to lowly Sassuolo. With a visit to another struggling side, Crotone, to finish off the calendar year, Sarri's team have a great opportunity to make sure they are winter champions.

Clearly Juventus are not to be written off - their 3-0 win at Bologna marked a sixth consecutive clean sheet as they begin to reassert their defensive stability - but Napoli are beginning to convince that they are the real deal, as their price of 2.40 to win the Scudetto underlines. With Juve facing Roma on Saturday, Napoli could be looking at a real Christmas gift.