Injury against Arsenal halts Alisson's promised 15 goals, 10 assists

Before he was ruled out, Alisson Santos had already put his numbers for the season in writing: 15 goals and 10 assists. The claim came days before Napoli's Champions League defeat to Arsenal, in a sketch filmed for the launch of EA Sports FC 27 and released on the club's channels — one that now reads as a bitter contrast with the news of his injury.

On the Future Stars cards for young talents, Vergara and Alisson both named Luca Marianucci, while Politano crowned the Brazilian himself: "For me, Ali." Then came the question that weighs heaviest now — personal targets for the season. Vergara set his bar at "5 goals and 5 assists", Spinazzola predicted "10 goals" for Politano, and Alisson closed strongest: "I'm aiming for 15 goals and 10 assists." A return of 25 direct contributions in a season — the boldest claim of the whole sketch.

Then came the Champions League, and with it the first European night of the Allegri era: a 0-1 home defeat to Arsenal, with Odegaard scoring in the 75th minute. Afterwards, the head coach delivered the news that changes everything: "Alisson Santos, we've lost him for a while." The Brazilian will not be available on Sunday 13 September against Bologna either, in the fourth round of the league, and the chase for those dreamed-of numbers will have to wait.

There is no let-up in the fixture list. Napoli go into Sunday's game at the Maradona on the back of three straight defeats across all competitions — Como, Inter and Arsenal — and sit twelfth in Serie A with just 3 points from 3 games. Alisson Santos joins an already heavy list of absentees in a difficult week, and the ambition he declared in front of the cameras remains, for now, just a number written in a video game.

Being sidelined before he could even chase those promised 25 goals and assists is one of the risks of any claim made in innocent times. But the contrast between the player who picked himself as his ideal team-mate in the video and the one now watching his side from the sidelines is the most honest picture of a start to the season that has offered very little in the way of lightness.