Roma aim to break their deadlock against Napoli, as Allegri fears Donadoni's fate
Warning signs for the hosts
Napoli face Roma tomorrow, Saturday, in the eighth round of Serie A. The fixture comes loaded with striking numbers from the two sides' previous meetings, along with a string of individual markers.
Opta, the statistics specialists, report that Napoli have drawn 55 of their Serie A meetings with Roma, against 50 wins and 53 defeats. Only against Torino, with 56 draws, have Napoli shared the spoils more often in their top-flight history.
At home to Roma, Napoli are unbeaten in their last eight Serie A matches, with four wins and four draws.
Their last longer unbeaten home run against Roma in the competition came between 1971 and 1982, when they went 11 games without defeat, winning 10 and drawing one.
No team has beaten Napoli away in Serie A more often than Atalanta since the three-points-for-a-win system arrived in 1994-1995. The Bergamo side have eight wins. Roma sit on seven, level with Fiorentina, Juventus and Lazio.
Roma, though, have not won a league match at Napoli's stadium since March 2018, when they ran out 4-2 winners.
Three of their first seven Serie A matches this season have ended in defeat for Napoli, alongside three wins and a draw.
The last time they shipped at least three defeats in the opening seven rounds was 2009-2010, when four losses cost Roberto Donadoni his job after matchday seven. Walter Mazzarri stepped in as his replacement.
Clean sheets have come in Napoli's last two home Serie A games, but they have not strung together three in a row without conceding at the Diego Armando Maradona since the September to October stretch of 2021.
Roma have banked 17 points this season from five wins and two draws. It is their best start after seven rounds since 2014-2015, when they collected 18.
Beat Napoli and Roma would move to 20 points, matching their third-best tally after eight matches in the competition. Only their 21 points in 2000-2001 and 24 points in 2013-2014 would stand ahead of it.
Three away matches this season, three clean sheets for Roma. Just once before have they kept a clean sheet in their first four away games of a single Serie A campaign: in 2017-2018.
Santiago Castro and Emanuele Lolli have taken Roma's tally of players born in 2004 or later to score in Serie A this season to four. No side has more, though Como and Monza match it.
Roma talent Emanuele Lolli has started five Serie A matches this season at 19 years and 61 days old, and a sixth start would come at 19 years and 68 days.
Among players who debuted in the three-points-for-a-win era since 1994-1995, Opta note that only Marquinhos reached this mark for Roma in the top flight at a younger age, at 18 years and 181 days.
No team has kept Rasmus Hojlund on the pitch longer in Serie A than Roma, who have faced him for 223 minutes without conceding a goal to him.
Yet Roma are also the only side the Danish striker has set up more than once in the competition, having laid on two goals.
