Napoli were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night in the Champions League.
Early goals from Mesut Ozil and Oliver Giroud were enough to claim victory over the Partenopei as they struggled to contain the Premier League side.
As expected the home side took the initiative from straight from kick-off and after conceding two goals in the opening 15 minutes a shell shocked Napoli had the appearance of a team still in transition for the first time this season.
On eight minutes a lofted pass into Giroud was laid into the path of Aaron Ramsey by the Frenchman, and with full-back Juan Zuniga failing to track the Welshman’s run he supplied a measured cross to the unmarked Ozil who fired home superbly from the edge of the area.
With the Azzurri being pushed back by the English side they were quickly two behind with the help of more poor defending. Zuniga’s throw-in was lazily cleared by Miguel Angel Britos and with the ball being returned quickly to Ozil the German waltzed into the box and provided a low cross for Giroud to stab past Pepe Reina.
The Italian side simply could not cope with the speed and movement of their hosts with defensive midfielders Gokhan Inler and Valon Behrami virtual spectators as the Arsenal midfield played the ball around them.
Napoli’s defensive mistakes continued, particularly from Britos, and Arsene Wenger’s side looked like increasing their lead. First Ramsey pounced on a poor clearance but overran the ball and then a cross was somehow allowed to reach the feet of Ozil just outside the six yard box who then drilled his shot into his own player.
When the Partenopei had finally seemed to have steady themselves they did manage to force a free-kick on the edge of the Arsenal box, however, as Jose Callejon curled his shot high and wide of the left-hand post it summed up their first half performance.
Despite nearly allowing Arsenal a third moments into the second half Rafael Benitez’ side provided a much stiffer test for the Gunners with a more composed display along the Partenopei to finally create some goal scoring opportunities.
However, those chances were largely in the form of long range efforts with Lorenzo Insigne curling just wide and substitute Dries Mertens with an almost identical shot into the arms of Wojciech Szczesny.
After Insigne again nearly instigated another chance for the Partenopei it was actually Arsenal on the counter that nearly broke the second half deadlock. After their initial chance had only earned a corner Reina had to make a point blank save from an onrushing Laurent Koscielny at the set piece.
Unfortunately Napoli’s second half performance did little more than suppress a match that Arsenal were happy to then control until the final whistle with the visitors lacking any cutting edge in attack.
Follow Kevin Pogorzelski on Twitter: @rabbitrabbiton
