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Good news, everyone! Napoli are above Juventus in the table! Somehow, some way, the Old Lady has "enjoyed" an even worse start to the Serie A season than Napoli have! Their record is a whopping one point worse, with two losses to Napoli's one! It's... something. Yeah. We're just holding onto the little things, really.
Kick 'em while they're down
Napoli have a huge and rare opportunity in this match: they're facing Juventus while they're vulnerable and beatable, arguably at the lowest point the bianconeri have been at since before they won the first of the current four-title run they're on. A win here would be a huge confidence boost for Napoli, and would help serve to push Juve even further into their season-opening tailspin.
Of course, the partenopei can't just assume that they have this match in the bag before it's played. It's not like they've been any better, after all. It's going to take a strong performance from Napoli to ensure a win in this match, and strong performances aren't something that have been easy to come by in Naples this season.
Fortunately, the team seems fairly healthy right now. There's been no word of fresh injuries after the Carpi match, so not everything was bad there. Jose Callejon and Jorginho are both expected to return to the lineup as well, so perhaps that ragingly confident form from the Lazio match will return. We can only hope.
Spin, spin, spinning away
It's easier to ask what hasn't gone wrong for Juventus this season than to ask what has. The answer? Uh... nothing, really. They've had injuries. They've had key players in poor form. They've had major brain farts in crucial moments. In other words, they've been last year's Napoli. In fact, they "pulled a Napoli" in a big way when they went to sleep late in their match against Frosinone, allowing the minnow squad to score deep in stoppage time to secure their first-ever Serie A point.
Yeah, Juventus have been that bad.
Their injury situation isn't getting any better, either. Still out are Claudio Marchisio, Sami Khedira, and Mario Mandzukic. More recent injury additions include Martin Caceres and Stephan Lichtsteiner, two injuries that will force Simone Padoin into the lineup and may force Juve to switch from Max Allegri's preferred 4-3-1-2 to a 3-5-2. Also in doubt is Alvaro Morata, who missed the Frosinone match after having to leave the weekend's game injured. The Old Lady's lineup looks in need of a walker to help prop it up with each passing week.
Projected Lineups Sure To Be Wrong
Napoli: Reina; Hysaj, Albiol, Koulibaly, Ghoulam; Allan, Jorginho, Hamsik; Callejon, Higuain, Insigne
Juventus: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Padoin, Lemina, Hernanes, Pogba, Sandro; Dybala, Zaza
At A Glance
Juventus: 13th; 1 W 2 D 2 L; League Form: DWDLL
Napoli: 12th; 1 W 3 D 1 L; League Form: DWDDL
Watch It
TV: beIN Sports (U.S. & Canada), Sky Supercalcio HD, Sky Calcio 1, Sky Sport 1 HD Italia (Italy), BT Sport Europe
Online: Fubo TV, beIN Sports Connect (U.S. & Canada), Sky Go Italia (Italy)
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, we'll have a match thread live here for discussion of the game at hand. You can also follow along with us live on Twitter, and we'll have updates of the most important events on our Facebook page, which you should definitely like.