AC Milan beat Napoli 2-1 despite playing half an hour with 10 men, adding to their triumphs in both head-to-heads last term to join the Partenopei and Roma on 12 points at the top of the Serie A table.
The Rossoneri got off to the perfect start, thanks largely to Christian Pulisic continuing his productive start to the season.
The American raced behind Luca Marianucci and played the ball to the back post, where Alexis Saelemaekers was on hand to open the scoring just three minutes into proceedings.
At the other end, Mike Maignan was equal to a Miguel Gutierrez header and curling Scott McTominay effort when the Partenopei created their first meaningful opportunities in the 11th minute.
Strahinja Pavlovic couldn’t quite turn his improvised attempt on-target, but Napoli were getting forward more themselves with Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa smashing a shot over. Youssouf Fofana was unable to add the finishing touch to a swift Milan counter, but the Frenchman soon turned provider for the hosts’ second.
He met Pavlović’s pass with a first-time lay-off for Pulisic to finish with the help of a deflection off Juan Jesus, taking him to four goals this term and top of the Serie A goalscoring chart.
Saelemaekers then saw a venomous shot parried by Alex Meret, while Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Anguissa spurned opportunities before the break.
After such an encouraging first half for Milan, there was a disaster in the second period as Maignan saved Anguissa’s header but palmed the ball to Di Lorenzo, who was pulled down by Pervis Estupiñan. He was shown a red card and conceded a penalty that Kevin De Bruyne coolly converted to reduce the arrears.
Pulisic was sacrificed so Davide Bartesaghi could be brought on, as the match quickly became a question of whether Milan’s defensive resilience or Napoli’s patience on the ball would come out on top. Di Lorenzo sent a header off-target but there was yet another issue for Milan with Fikayo Tomori going off injured.
Even so, Adrien Rabiot epitomised Milan’s determination and blocked Eljif Elmas’ shot before David Neres’ strike was deflected onto the woodwork by Luka Modric.
That was enough for the Rossoneri to see out the seven minutes of added time to win a fourth consecutive Serie A match and go top of the table. They also ended Napoli’s run of 16 league matches unbeaten, which had been the longest such run in Europe’s top five leagues.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Christian Pulisic (AC Milan)
