Napoli v Chelsea Tip

Hope for Chelsea having a good night in Italy seems to hang on the theory that they are so desperate, and the match is so significant for their season - and AVB’s future - that they will find inspiration from somewhere. That is possible, but then again they really needed a result at Goodison Park in their last Premier League match and they lost that one 2-0.

After that, the manager would have been pleading for his players to put on a fine display at home to Birmingham City in the FA Cup; that ended in a thoroughly uninspiring 1-1 draw. In other words, desperation isn’t helping anything at the moment.

Napoli are a better side than Everton and Birmingham, which won’t make life any easier on Tuesday night. The attacking triumvirate of Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi has caused most defences nightmares this campaign. Walter Mazzarri’s side are the second highest scorers in Serie A, but recently they have shown greater defensive steel as well. Four consecutive league clean sheets included one at the San Siro against leaders AC Milan - Arsenal could only dream of such a thing.

Chelsea’s problems are well-documented and they might even settle for a narrow defeat to keep them in with a chance at Stamford Bridge for the second leg. We should expect Napoli to score, and at best odds of 5/2 (Bet365) they may well be the only team to do so.