Dries Mertens scored twice on Saturday night as Napoli overcame Sampdoria with relative ease to pick up a comfortable 2-0 win on their return to the Stadio San Paolo.
The Partenopei were on the road for their opening two games due to construction work taking place on home soil, which ultimately proved to be unsatisfactory.
But what did at least leave a smile on the home support and players’ faces was the result.
MERTENS WILL BE GREATEST GOALSCORER
Mertens did what he does best against the Blucerchiati as he came up with two ice-cool penalty box finishes to put the Liguria outfit to the sword in ruthless fashion.
He is in a real purple patch at the moment, having found the net in each of his last six home games for Napoli, with the last player to do that being the former PSV man himself two years ago.
Since March, there is also no Serie A player with more goals in the competition than Mertens, who has been deadly over his last 13 games in the top flight with 11 goals and for assists.
It was the latest example of how he continues to slowly creep his way up the club’s scoring charts with relatively minimal fuss.
Thanks to his heroics on Saturday, he is now just three goals behind Diego Maradona in second place in Napoli’s all-time scoring chart, having haled himself onto the 112-mark.
It is only a matter of time before he overhauls the club icon and it will then be about taking his rightful place as the greatest ever goalscorer in Napoli history.
Marek Hamsik and his 121 in all competitions will be next up for the ex-Utrecht forward and with the form he has shown, that is a target he could reach before Christmas.
When he does rightly take his place at the top of the mountain eventually, it will be richly deserved for a player who perhaps fails to receive the credit he often deserves.
SAMPDORIA WILL STRUGGLE
The appointment of Eusebio Di Francesco in the Stadio Luigi Ferraris hot seat appeared to be an astute and intelligent one, given his rather harsh treatment at Roma.
But the season has started disastrously for Samp and it is already leading to serious concerns about the state they may find themselves in this season.
They are one of just two teams yet to register a point this season but more worrying than that, they are shipping goals at an alarming rate and look blunt at the other end.
Sampdoria, who have last season’s top scorer Fabio Quagliarella in their ranks, have scored just once and shipped an alarming nine at the other end.
As the sale of the club continues to rumble on, it is now hindering the team badly on the park, with Massimo Ferrero’s heart clearly not being in things during the summer.
They bought little and purchased no real players who are suited to Di Francesco’s favoured 4-3-3 system in the wide areas, while central defence is a big problem.
Selling Dennis Praet with no ready-made replacement was also a surprising decision and it looks like the summer business could come back to haunt them badly.
The only saving grace for Samp is that history may be on their side as it is the fifth time in their history that they have started a campaign by losing each of their first three games but none of those years have ever ended in relegation.
