Napoli vs. Chievo Verona: Final score 1-0, Hamsik's goal enough for the Partenopei

Putting Napoli's somewhat unimpressive 1-0 victory over Chievo Verona is important because you're liable to blow past the positives if you're too quick to try and tear things down with aggressive analysis. Sunday was all about winning, that's all that really mattered. Substance and style were bystanders to the simple fact that Napoli just needed to walk out of the Sao Paolo with three points...and they did.

It was Marek Hamsik's moment of brilliance in the 58th minute that provided the needed goal and the three points and despite all the other strangeness that occurred, that is what really matter for now. Just keep telling yourself that and it will help. The victory also allowed Napoli to stay ahead of the suddenly surging Inter Milan for second place in the table which again, is a good thing for the morale.

Pay no mind to the strange procession of first half wonder misses by various Napoli players, who seemed at time to be trying to find ways to creatively miss the goal. It's alright now that Lorenzo Insigne and Goran Pandev were like a footballing version of Laurel and Hardy, making an absolute mess of goal scoring opportunities. Ignore the fact that even with a late red card and a disputed penalty shout, Chievo were in the game the entire 90 minutes. After all, you knew that would happen, they're the Flying F***ing Donkeys, that's what they do.

We could recap some of the frustrating near misses. Like in the 8th minute when Gokham Inler smashed a shot off the crossbar that hit off Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino's back and rolled slowly towards the goal before Pandev appeared to do more to clear the danger than make sure it crossed the goaline.

We might get upset about referees missing Chievo's Boukary Dramé for blatantly blocking a Hamsik header with his hand or the stupendous miss by Christian Maggio that followed. You remember, when Insigne beat Sorrentino like a red-headed stepchild, hit Maggio with a great pass only to see the winger pop the ball up and over the bar.

What about in the 38th minute when Pandev had an open goal that to a clever play by Insigne, only to attempt to execute an unnecessarily complex scissor-kick and completely miss the goal.

We could go, but why? Napoili won and considering their recent struggles against Chievo and the need for a positive result, let's just be happy for the points. We can drive ourselves crazy later worrying about the little details and the various issues, for now things are a little better and sometimes that's all that matters.