Around five matchdays ago, no one would have ever believed that we’d be coming into this game off the back of a Sampdoria win and a Napoli loss.

Sampdoria have been one of the worst sides in Serie A so far this season but they started 2023 by narrowly beating Sassuolo 2-1. That scoreline took them to eight goals for the season and it was only their second victory.

They would have wanted a different team to travel to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris this weekend if they harboured hopes of building some sort of run of form. Napoli have been far and away the best team in Serie A this season and one of the best in Europe.

They may have been beaten by Inter at San Siro in midweek, their first loss of the season, but that game was likely a special case given Inter put in their best display of the season and Napoli did the opposite.

The Azzurri will still turn up in Genoa feeling extremely confident that they have more than enough to not only win the game, but also stop Sampdoria’s stunted attack from finding the back of the net themselves.

Napoli have got the best attack and the joint-second best defence in the league so the odds really are stacked against Sampdoria when it comes to scoring, even if they are the home team. Luciano Spalletti will almost certainly get a reaction out of his players for this one.

This is far and away the game of the weekend in Serie A and millions of fans will be sitting down to watch it around the world.

It is a huge test of AC Milan and their title credentials because they managed to get the crucial three points against Salernitana and Inter did them a favour by beating Napoli. That cut the gap to five points at the top but it will mean very little if they then immediately drop points.

Jose Mourinho was not on the touchline during Matchday 16 as he was serving a ban but his Roma side did get three points to kick off 2023. They beat Bologna 1-0 but it was far from inspiring and it has to be expected that they won’t be taking the game to Milan at San Siro.

That being said, Milan looked fluid enough in attack during the early stages against Salernitana to suggest that they can pick apart any defence with the likes of Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud. The return of Davide Calabria also aids them both in attack and defence in comparison to Sergino Dest.

Roma’s defence can be very tough to break down but Stefano Pioli and his side are so determined to defend their title and continue closing the gap to Napoli that they will likely manage to win. Their home form has been great for a long time, winning seven and losing one this season.

Expect it to be a very tight game, but Milan are one step above Roma at the moment and they should find the breakthrough.