Team Napoli in action© AFP

Romelu Lukaku starred again for Napoli by scoring once and setting up two more goals in Friday’s 3-1 win over Como which ensured top spot in Serie A for at least another week. Belgium striker Lukaku laid on Scott McTominay for his first goal in Italy’s top flight after just 25 seconds, before netting from the spot seven minutes after half-time and rolling in David Neres as Napoli extended their league lead to four points. Closest rivals Juventus can pull back to within a point of Napoli with a home win over Cagliari on Sunday.

Lukaku has settled in immediately in Naples under Antonio Conte, scoring three times in five league appearances in which he has also made four assists for a team which looks ready to challenge for the league title.

“We’re getting there. It’s going to take time because I got here late. It’s all thanks to my teammates, the coaching staff and fans that we’re doing so well,” said Lukaku to Sky.

Napoli didn’t have it all their own way at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona as they were pushed hard by promoted Como.

Cesc Fabregas’ team were deservedly level at the break thanks to a stunning long-range strike from Gabriel Strefezza, which came shortly after Nico Paz thumped a shot off the woodwork.

And the match was firmly in the balance until Neres rolled home his second Napoli goal in the 86th minute after being brilliantly slipped through by Lukaku.

Lukaku looks lighter on his feet than he has at any point since winning Serie A with Inter Milan in 2021 and he also supplied a neat pass from which Scotland’s McTominay lashed in his second Napoli goal after also netting against Palermo in the Italian Cup last month.

McTominay has been excellent since signing for Napoli from Manchester United in the summer, adding a new dimension to the midfield for southern Italy’s biggest club.

“It was great to get off to a good start. It was a great ball. Obviously for me it’s nice to get a goal and then we lost a little bit of control in the first half and then we tweaked a through things at half-time and it made a difference,” said McTominay to Sky. 

Napoli are unbeaten since being humiliated at Verona — who beat Venezia 2-1 in Friday’s late match — on the opening day of the season.

And under Conte Napoli look much more like the team which swept to their third Scudetto in 2023 than the disastrous outfit which last season failed to even qualify for European football as reigning champions.

“We just want to take it game by game. We want to play football and hopefully win as many games as we can,” added McTominay.

“The boys have been great with helping me bed in. Game by game, no-one’s looking any further past the next game.”

Como, backed by Indonesian tobacco giants Djarum, sit 10th on eight points after an encouraging start to their first Serie A season in 21 years.

Romelu Lukaku made an immediate impact on his Napoli debut by netting the leveller which set up Saturday’s last-gasp 2-1 win over 10-man Parma, while AC Milan were held to an entertaining 2-2 draw at Lazio. Belgium striker Lukaku completed a permanent move to Napoli from Chelsea on Thursday, ending a long period of limbo with the Blues. And he helped save his new team from an embarrassing defeat against a Parma team who had to play nearly half an hour with a man down and an outfield player in goal.

Substitute Lukaku lashed home his first Napoli goal in the second of a whopping 15 minutes of stoppage time past Enrico Delprato, who went between the sticks following Zion Suzuki’s 76th-minute sending off.

Suzuki’s dismissal for a second booking came moments after coach Fabio Pecchia had made his last possible substitutions for Parma, who had taken a shock 19th-minute lead from the penalty spot through Ange-Yoan Bonny.

And Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa thumped home the winning header four minutes after Lukaku’s equaliser to hand Napoli a dramatic second win from their first three matches.

Lukaku netted after being presented to home fans alongside Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour to supporters before kick-off, all three signed in the days leading up to the match with Parma.

“It’s an honour to play for this team, these fans and the players who have welcomed me here so well. It’s been bit of a habit of mine over my career to score on my debut but at the end of the day we won, and that’s the most important thing,” Lukaku told DAZN.

Lukaku was brought in to replace Victor Osimhen who has been excluded from the Napoli squad after failing to find an exit from southern Italy.

Osimhen had been agitating for a move away from Napoli after the club descended into chaos almost immediately after claiming their third league crown last year.

But no club came close to both meeting Napoli’s valuation and satisfying Osimhen’s wage requirements, leaving the 25-year-old in a gilded cage as the club builds a new team for Antonio Conte.

Milan coach Paulo Fonseca dropped star players Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez as he tried to shake things up following two deeply disappointing opening displays.

But both were brought on shortly after Lazio took the lead in the 66th minute following two quickfire tap-ins from Valentin Castellanos and Boulaye Dia which cancelled out Strahinja Pavlovic’s early opener.

And Leao almost immediately levelled the scores after combining with Hernandez and fellow substitute Tammy Abraham, who made his Milan debut less than a day after arriving on loan from Roma.

However Milan sit 14th on two points, hardly the start fans were hoping for after Fonseca replaced Stefano Pioli during the close season.

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Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne during Belgium’s 1-0 loss to Slovakia in UEFA Euro 2024.© AFP