Dangerous depth of Napoli’s squad leaves Serie A rivals in their wake

“Every match is a voyage into the unknown,” insisted Luciano Spalletti on Saturday, yet his team keep arriving at the same destination. Sometimes the path is bumpy, and sometimes it is smooth, but at the end Napoli always find the three points they were looking for.

This weekend brought a 10th consecutive win, extending a sequence that has carried them to first place in Serie A and their Champions League group. On paper, a home game against Bologna – who began the weekend one spot above the relegation zone – looked straightforward. In practice, it was the windiest road yet.

The visitors took the lead with a well-worked goal in the 41st minute, three players combining to set up 21-year-old Joshua Zirkzee for a goal on his first start. Their lead did not survive even to half-time, Juan Jesus equalising from a corner after Gary Medel made a mess of his clearance. If the source of the goal was surprising – Jesus was filling in at centre-back for the injured Amir Rrahmani and had scored three times in his previous 250 Serie A games – then the fact of it was not. Napoli had created chances throughout the first half, most originating from the feet of the irrepressible Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

There was a seven-minute patch in which he conjured four separate scoring opportunities: sending Giacomo Raspadori, Mário Rui and then Matteo Politano through on goal, with a shot of his own in-between. Kvaratskhelia himself was the only one to demand a save from the goalkeeper, though Rui did hit the upright.

The man known locally as “Kvaradona” has piled up seven goals and six assists in all competitions, but even those numbers do not fully convey his impact: the consistency with which he finds space between the lines and the ease with