Naples: Who needs Gonzalo Higuain, the record goalscorer in Serie A, when you have Dries Mertens?
Mertens’ emergence has eased the pain caused by Higuain’s departure in the off-season. Not content with bagging a hat-trick last weekend, the diminutive forward netted four on Sunday to help Napoli to a 5-3 win over Torino.
Mertens completed a hat trick in nine first-half minutes and then saved the best until last — a sublime chip into the far corner in the 80th minute.
“Mertens is an extraordinary player, but the team makes it easier for him with the type of football they are playing,” Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri said. “But we have to grow mentally. It should have been a match that was definitively over once we went 3-0 up and it wasn’t.
“We conceded goals with three stupid mistakes, carelessness that we absolutely can’t commit, but it was a very high level performance.”
For Napoli’s film-producer owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, it was the chance to take another shot at Higuain — whom he accused of “betrayal” last summer despite pocketing 90m euros (Dh344.5 million) from Juventus for his sale.
“Is it just me or has Mertens scored 10 goals just like Higuain?” De Laurentiis quipped.
Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic was so impressed with Napoli he said: “Without Higuain and then without Milik, he’s found other solutions.
“I don’t know if Napoli are better than the others (teams), but they certainly play better.”
Napoli leapfrogged above AC Milan into third, a point behind second-place Roma.
Higuain transferred to Juve for an Italian-record sum after breaking a 66-year-old Serie A record with 36 goals for Napoli last season.
Arkadiusz Milik was signed to replace him and scored seven goals in eight matches, but tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing for Poland in October.
As a result, Sarri has been relying on a three-man forward line with Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon flanking Mertens — and the trio are starting to gel.
Napoli opened the scoring in the 13th minute, firing in on the bounce, then doubled his tally five minutes later, winning and converting a penalty after being pushed over by Antonio Barreca.
The 29-year-old forward completed his second successive hat trick in the 22nd minute.
Torino goalkeeper Joe Hart did brilliantly to keep out a powerful shot by Callejon, only for Mertens to fire in the loose ball at the second attempt after his initial effort was cleared off the line by Luca Rossettini.
The sublime chip to round it off truly was the added drop of chocolate from the talented Belgian.
