Napoli director Giovanni Manna maintains it is ‘premature’ to call tonight’s showdown with Milan a ‘Scudetto battle’ and warns there will be tougher times to come.
It kicks off at San Siro at 19.45 GMT.
The Partenopei are top of the Serie A table and further extended their advantage thanks to the 4-4 thriller between Inter and Juventus on Sunday.
“It is certainly premature to call this a Scudetto battle, it is a game between great teams in a wonderful arena,” Manna told DAZN.
“We know where we started from, the work that we are doing, but I think it is too early to talk about the title. There are teams in a better condition than we are who built more foundations over recent years.”
Milan are decimated going into the game by Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders bans, Christian Pulisic flu symptoms, plus injuries to Tammy Abraham, Luka Jovic, Matteo Gabbia, Alessandro Florenzi and Ismael Bennacer.
Napoli in pole position for Scudetto
On the other hand, Napoli are missing just Stanislav Lobotka, replaced by summer signing Billy Gilmour from Brighton and Hove Albion.
“Difficulties are par for the course, we must remain humble and try to do our best every day. We are up against a strong Milan side, after Juventus they are perhaps the best opponents we’ve faced this season,” added Manna.
“We started with the idea of rebuilding the core of the team and adding new players in the summer. There are already some very good results, we are objectively happy with what we’ve done so far, albeit well aware there will be tougher moments to come.”