Serie A title race is still controlled by Maurizio Sarri and Napoli despite their Roma slip

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  • Napoli players during Saturday's 4-2 defeat by Roma in Serie A.

    Sleight of feet and speed of mind saw meticulous Napoli midfielder Jorginho slip the ball away under intense pressure within his own half.

    The ball was driven up the pitch by skilled team-mates in typically unruffled fashion, another picture-book ending only being denied by an uncharacteristically wild final shot from 17-goal top scorer Dries Mertens.

    This beautiful passage of play came in the dying embers of a tumultuous day in Serie A – and it said everything about why the Gli Azzurri are going nowhere in this engrossing, ceaseless title race.

    Maurizio Sarri’s leaders were then forlornly chasing parity in the 93rd minute of a 4-2 defeat to Roma which ended a 10-match winning streak in the top flight.

    But such is the unshakeable belief in their rarefied approach, desperate abandonment of principles by resorting to the unsightly ‘route one’ so many head coaches favour in such dire straits was anathema.

    Several hours earlier on Saturday at the same juncture in their game more than 200 kilometres north, Juventus superstar Paulo Dybala was reproducing a flash of his revelatory autumnal form to steal an invaluable 1-0 win at fellow high flyers Lazio.

    It is easy to label Saturday’s action as a fork in the road. The round when Napoli fatally blinked to allow the path to open up for the perennial champions’ pursuit of a record-extending seventh-successive scudetto.

    This is certainly one way of reading an advantage cut to one point. Many who lack comparative squad depth and star quality have faltered before on the final stretch.

    Sarri’s nascent side had a brief hold on the trophy in midseason during 2015/16 before dropping off. But this Napoli are not ‘many sides’. Fulsome praise from Manchester City’s Svengali Pep Guardiola is not easily earned.

    Trust the approach, honed by nearly three years of dedicated work, and the results will follow.

    Do not be shaken by striker Edin Dzeko’s devastating brace at Stadio San Paolo this weekend. Stick to your principles, find confidence from your training. This has to be Sarri’s message.

    A first loss since December’s 1-0 reversal to Juve should not extinguish hope. Points of favourability for Napoli are easy to find.

    The average current position of their remaining opponents is 10th. Juve’s rounds up to 11th, a negligible difference.

    Free from the draining effects of European football, Sarri now should have about six days at the club’s Centro Sportivo di Castel Volturno headquarters to work on each individual fixture.

    His troops have been top for all but five rounds. The spot will probably be lost when Juve play a game in hand against Atalanta on March 14.

    But this turn should not deny the Neapolitans control over destiny. A sense of history has defined the current generation’s quest, who seek to earn their spot alongside Diego Maradona’s vintage double title winners from nearly 30 years ago.

    ‘El Diego’ famously inspired a decisive raid on Turin in 1986/87 along the way to the first success.

    April 22’s scrap at Allianz Stadium looms large. If Napoli stick to their principles during the build-up, the deified Maradona can still gain company in the annals.

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