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Salernitana struggling but scoring
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Leaders Napoli don't keep many clean sheets
Salernitana v Napoli
Saturday 21 January, 17:00
Live on BT Sport
We endured a painful near-miss in Spain last night. Mallorca's 1-0 win over Celta Vigo kept us well under the 2.5 goals line, but Iago Aspas didn't do his bit of the bargain. The veteran striker had three shots, but none of them were on target. We still love him though, the cheeky little scamp.
Onwards and hopefully upwards, we find ourselves in Salerno, Italy. Salernitana have had a curious week in which they were thrashed 8-2 by Atalanta, promptly sacked coach Davide Nicola, and then rehired him two days later. His first task after returning is to take on the best team in Italy right now.
Napoli further underlined their title credentials last weekend by thrashing Juventus 5-1, as Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen ran riot in attack. Luciano Spalletti's team then crashed out of the Coppa Italia on penalties to Cremonese, but it was a heavily rotated team, with the Partenopei clearly focused on winning the Scudetto.
Napoli have rattled in 44 goals across their 18 league games so far, and they go into this weekend nine points clear of Milan in the title race. They also won their Champions League group, and have played some incredibly thrilling football. However, they do give up chances at the other end, and they have only managed four clean sheets in their last 12 top-flight matches.
Salernitana have put 18 points on the board, and with the bottom three really struggling (Hellas Verona, Sampdoria and Cremonese all went into the weekend in single figures), you can understand how experienced firefighter Nicola was able to win back his job. Salernitana have lost four of their last five matches, but they do pose an attacking threat. Nicola's side has scored in 13 of their last 16 league matches.
I'll back Napoli to win this, but I think Salernitana can land a punch or two, so let's go for Napoli to win and BTTS on the Sportsbook at 2.757/4.