Napoli fall to Arsenal as Allegri and Di Lorenzo urge calm

Massimiliano Allegri fronted up to the cameras after a third straight defeat and asked for time. "We need calm judgement, I'm confident. The problem isn't high or low pressing, it's making the right choices," he told Sky.

On the defensive side, the head coach argued his side had improved compared with the previous two games. "If we'd defended like tonight against Inter and Como, it would have ended differently," he told Prime. On the injury list, he said Alisson Santos "we've lost for a while", while he sounded pessimistic about Meret's recovery.

Captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo, speaking to Prime, struck a calmer tone. "We defended well, had our chances. Now we need to start winning again." On the moment with team-mate Kevin De Bruyne, he explained: "A bit of nervousness in a match happens with De Bruyne. It was just a movement where we didn't understand each other. Sorry about the result, we'll see with the coach now."

Speaking to Sky, Di Lorenzo added: "Details make the difference, you get a cover wrong and the opponents punish you. After three defeats, morale isn't great. But heads are up. We defended like a team, we attacked like a team."

It was one such detail, Odegaard's goal in the 75th minute, that decided a match in which Napoli held out for far longer than they had against Inter and Como. Allegri's calls for calm and Di Lorenzo's talk of returning to winning ways still have to be proven on the pitch: the five goals conceded in the two previous defeats, the same ones the coach referenced, are the numbers that count.