Four of the top nine meet before Napoli's trip to Monza

The midweek round opens on Tuesday 27 October with three matches, and two of them pit sides above Napoli against each other. At 20:45 Torino host Como and Roma host Cagliari. Those four games involve Roma, third on 18 points, Como, fifth on 17, and Torino and Cagliari, level on 13.

What Napoli need on Tuesday

From tenth place, Tuesday evening is less about who wins than about who drops points. A head-to-head in Turin has to cost someone something. Either one side loses or they share the points.

Napoli have 11 points, two fewer than Torino and Cagliari. That gap is what currently separates them from the top half of the table. If either side loses on Tuesday, Napoli could close it as early as Wednesday.

Wednesday and Thursday

Monza-Napoli kicks off on Wednesday 28 October at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 15:45 ET). Genoa-Juventus starts at the same time. Juventus won 2-0 at Lecce and are on 14, level with Frosinone. Genoa beat Venezia 1-0 to move up to 7.

At 18:30 Milan, fourth on 18 after the 2-0 at Udine, host Bologna. Frosinone are coming off a 4-4 draw away at Atalanta. They host Lecce on Thursday, by which time Napoli's game will already be over.

Also on Thursday, at 20:45, Fiorentina host Atalanta. After eight matchdays Atalanta, one of the sides the Napoli fanbase measures its season against, are eleventh on 10 points, one behind Napoli. They go to Florence to face a Fiorentina side eighteenth on 4.

Monza, Napoli's opponents on Wednesday, are fifteenth with 7 points. They play again on Saturday 31 October at 15:00, away at Bologna.

The real point

But none of that is the real issue. A squad built to compete with Inter, Milan, Juventus, Roma and Atalanta now finds itself hoping for a draw between Torino and Como, seven points off fourth place.

Other teams' results only help the sides that take care of their own. If Napoli do not win at Monza on Wednesday, what happens on Tuesday will matter little, and nobody else will be to blame.