Tuesday's goalless draw between Milan and Lazio at San Siro opened the widow of opportunity to Napoli to close the gap on the leaders and reaffirm their title credentials. However, on Wednesday evening Walter Mazzarri's side slumped to what many would term a surprise 2-0 defeat to Chievo in Verona.
That result means that the former Italian champions remain in second place in Serie A but they are now five points off the pace with Inter and Lazio just a couple of points behind them. It was Napoli's first league defeat since their 3-1 loss to Inter at San Siro at the start of January and the Partenopei will be keen to bounce back with a comprehensive victory over lowly Cesena on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier in the season in the reverse fixture Napoli had destroyed the Seahorses 4-1 away from home and will head into this weekend's encounter at the Stadio San Paolo confident of yet another win.
However, in the wake of the defeat in Verona in midweek Mazzarri has asked his team to learn their lessons and admitted, "Defeats happen, but what's important is to draw lessons from your losses. Maybe I should have made more changes to the starting line-up, because midweek matches break up the normal training regime."
Watching The Rainbow
It had poured on Cesena in January as they had to contend themselves with tough fixtures against Roma, Inter and Milan - three of the Scudetto challengers. Unsurprisingly, the Seahorses lost all the three matches in succession and sank deeper and deeper into the relegation pit.
However, now that it has stopped raining the rainbow has appeared in the sky and life is assuming some colour once again for Cesena. Massimo Ficcadenti's side ended January with a 1-1 away draw with Lecce and were involved in yet another draw in midweek, this time with Catania at home. The two points gained mean that the Seahorses now have 21 points from 23 matches and are third from bottom, two points from safety.
Cesena's away form, though, is terrible as they have won just once on the road all season and have scored just eight goals in those 11 matches, conceding 17 in the process. A victory in Naples on Sunday isn't very likely but with Napoli having suffered a setback in midweek, they will aspire for something.
TEAM NEWS
Napoli
Grava and Vitale are out injured for the Azzurri while Pazienza is suspended. Lavezzi is back from injury and will start alongside Hamsik as the two creative minds behind Cavani in the 3-4-2-1 formation.
Cesena
There were no major injury or suspension worries for Cesena, who will line up in a 4-3-2-1 system.
Prediction
Napoli slumped to a defeat in Verona in midweek but will be more than a match against relegation-candidates Cesena. A comfortable win for the Azzurri is in the offing.
Napoli 2-0 Cesena 
