Napoli certainly shook off their recent setbacks with a 6-1 mauling of Sassuolo, including a Dries Mertens brace, scoring four in the opening 21 minutes.
The Partenopei were rocked by just one point in the last three rounds, which saw them lose sight of the Scudetto race and sit just one point clear of fourth-placed Juventus. Giovanni Di Lorenzo and David Ospina returned, with Stanislav Lobotka and Adam Ounas injured. Georgios Kyriakopoulos sat out a ban, with Jeremy Toljan, Hamed Traore, Pedro Obiang and Abdou Harroui out of action.
Serie A Liveblog: Napoli-Sassuolo, Cagliari-Verona, Sampdoria-Genoa, Spezia-Lazio
In the third minute, Napoli went so close when Victor Osimhen burst down the left and thumped the base of the near post.
Kalidou Koulibaly broke the deadlock soon after, his header meeting a Lorenzo Insigne corner kick to put Napoli in front.
The second goal was practically a replay, except this time it was Osimhen who got the header in off the underside of the crossbar.
It was one-way traffic in the opening stages, Dries Mertens robbed Maxime Lopez to send Osimhen down the right, where he rolled across for Hirving Lozano to tap in 3-0.
Moments later, Mertens added a goal to his assist, cutting inside from the left to blast right-footed past Andrea Consigli at the near post.
Mertens completed his brace after the restart, exchanging passes with Fabian Ruiz down the left to fire in from six yards.
Sassuolo finally got a shot on target, Davide Frattesi forcing a David Ospina save after Mert Muldur’s pull-back from the by-line.
Osimhen had the ball in the net again on 71 minutes, but had wandered into an offside position.
Napoli did make it 6-0 eventually, a corner not cleared effectively, Matteo Politano pulling back for a flick-on and Amir Rrahmani turning in from 12 yards.
Maxime Lopez received scant consolation for Sassuolo, scoring from close range after the ball pinballed around the box.
Napoli 6-1 Sassuolo
Koulibaly 7 (N), Osimhen 15 (N), Lozano 19 (N), Mertens 21, 54 (N), Rrahmani 80 (N), Lopez 87 (S)
Now that the stress is off of them potentially winning the title they put in a good performance. Absolute capitulation for the title.
If only Napoli were consistent, might have been their year.