Napoli continue their Scudetto defense when they take on Fiorentina at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Sunday evening. 

Remarkably, Fiorentina have won three of their last five visits to Naples over the past couple of years. This also includes a memorable 5-2 extra-time win in the Coppa Italia last-16 in January 2022. 

Having secured their first Scudetto since 1989-90, The Partenopei are still adjusting to life following Luciano Spalletti's departure over the summer.

Despite his glorious achievement, Spaletti decided to leave the club at the end of last season and he was appointed as head coach of Italy in August. 

Napoli are now keen to defend their title with Rudi Garcia in charge. The French manager coached several Ligue 1 clubs over the years as he most notably won a domestic double (Ligue 1 and the French Cup) with Lille in 2010-11. Garcia also led Serie A side Roma between June 2013 and January 2016, while his last appointment was in Saudi Arabia. 

Rudi Garcia's side are now looking to return to winning ways after a 3-2 home defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. They are now set for back-to-back games with Union Berlin in the competition and The Partenopei will be bidding to take maximum points, but they also need to focus on their domestic campaign. 

Domestically, Napoli claimed a 4-0 win at Lecce last weekend in another prolific performance. Rudi Garcia's men have now scored four goals in their last two Serie A games (including a 4-1 home win over Udinese) and are aiming to win three in a row for the first time in 2023-24.

Napoli kicked-off the new Serie A campaign with successive wins over Frosinone (3-1) and Sassuolo (2-0) before a 2-1 home loss to Lazio in their last match prior to the September international break. The Partenopei also failed to beat the likes of Genoa and Bologna (both on the road) in back-to-back draws after that, but things are improving over the past two weeks. 

Victor Osimhen had a quiet evening against Real Madrid but the Nigerian forward remains the biggest threat for all opponents, having scored five goals in seven Serie A appearances this term. 

Napoli are still without centre-back duo Amir Rrahmani and Juan Jesus for this weekend, with the pair not expected to return to action until mid-October.

At the back, Leo Ostigard established himself as a first-team player under Rudi Garcia. The Norwegian defender was only a backup player under Spaletti but he took advantage of the situation and even scored in the last two games. 

Viola were held to a 2-2 draw against Ferencvaros at Stadio Artemio Franchi in the UEFA Europa Conference League in midweek, with Jonathan Ikone's last-gasp equalizer rescuing a point for the Italians. 

Even though Fiorentina finished 8^th in Serie A last season (one position lower than in 2021-22), Vincenzo Italiano's side entered the new campaign after an unforgettable campaign that saw them reaching two finals. Unfortunately, Fiorentina lost both finals in the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Europa Conference League, to Inter Milan and West Ham United, respectively. 

Since joining Fiorentina in June 2021, Italiano has been doing great job for the Florence outfit and there is a feeling that Fiorentina can do even better this term.  

However, they fail to show consistency as Vincenco Italiano's men are yet to win back-to-back games this season (in all competitions). When it comes to Serie A games only, Fiorentina are unbeaten in four games (winning three of them) and have beat Cagliari 3-0 on Monday. 

Fiorentina have announced that goalkeeper Oliver Christensen was diagnosed with a Grade I tear to the left thigh and will be sidelined at least a couple of weeks. The Dane, who joined Viola this summer, had been due to start Thursday’s Conference League match with Ferencvaros when he pulled out during the warm-up.

All in all, Vincenczo Italiano will surely reshuffle his starting XI, with Serbian defender Nikola Milenkovic and Ghanaian midfielder Alfred Duncan both remaining unused substitutes in midweek. The pair should start at Napoli, with the likes of Arthur Melo, Christian Kouame and Fabiano Parisi (who were introduced as second-half substitutes against Ferencvaros) also pushing for starts. 

After a highly disappointing and unsuccessful loan-spell at Premier League side Liverpool last season, Arthur Melo is establishing himself as a first-team figure in Vincenczo Italiano's Fiorentina setup. 

With four goals in six Serie A games, Nicolas Gonzalez is making a strong start to the new season. The Argentine winger bagged 14 goals in 42 appearances in all competitions and was one of Fiorentina's standout performers last season. 

Meanwhile, Arthur Cabral was tempted to join Portuguese champions Benfica over the summer. With 17 goals in all competitions, the Brazilian forward was the club's top scorer last season. 

Yet to score a goal in 11 appearances across all competitions this season, Lucas Beltran could drop out of the starting XI on Sunday. M'Bala Nzola could get the nod over the Argentine forward, with the Angolan striker, who joined Fiorentina from Spezia A over the summer, scoring his first goal of the season against Cagliari. 

Elsewhere, Dodo, Yerry Mina, and Gaetano Castrovilli are also sidelined for Viola. 

Napoli: Alex Meret - Mário Rui, Leo Ostigard, Natan, Giovanni Di Lorenzo - Piotr Zielinski, Stanislav Lobotka, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa - Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Victor Osimhen, Matteo Politano. (4-3-3) 

Fiorentina: Pietro Terracciano - Michael Kayode, Nikola Milenkovic, Lucas Martínez Quarta, Fabiano Parisi - Alfred Duncan, Arthur Melo - Christian Kouame, Giacomo Bonaventura, Nicolas Gonzalez - M'Bala Nzola. (4-2-3-1) 

Following Saturday's round of games, Napoli and Fiorentina are now fourth and fifth in Serie A, respectively, level on 14 points with four wins, two draws and one defeat in their opening seven games. 

With that said, defending champions Napoli are already seven points behind leaders AC Milan, following the Rossonerri's 1-0 win at Genoa on Saturday night, and will be aiming to restore the four-point gap with a victory against a tricky Fiorentina side on Sunday. 

Fiorentina, on the other hand, have nothing to lose here as the Viola will travel south on the back of a six-game unbeaten run in all competitions. It's been an eventful week, indeed, that saw Fiorentina wrapping up a 3-0 home win over Claudio Ranieri's Cagliari on Monday night before their second match in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage on Thursday. 

So, the chances of a Napoli victory on Sunday look to be very high, especially with Fiorentina having a shorter rest period following their European game. Anyway, it won't be an easy match and we expect goals in Naples.