Sarri delighted with Napoli character

Sarri's Napoli fell a goal behind to Chievo after Nicola Rigoni scored in the second minute, but were level four minutes later through Gonzalo Higuain, before Vlad Chiriches and Jose Callejon took the game away for Napoli on Saturday.

Speaking afterwards, Sarri said via Sky Sports Italia: "To take a goal after two minutes at a time like this could be hard.

"But the boys have played as they know and they have reassembled. The team played a good match."

He reserved special praise for Higuain, who got on the scoresheet for the second match running after a relative drought of four games.

"He had a great game," Sarri said. "Perhaps he was a bit angry, because he always wants to score, but to me that is okay."

The win put Napoli back on top of the Serie A table on goal difference, having played a game more than Juventus, who face Atlanta on Sunday.

Sarri was happy to be on top for now, but said he was so certain Juve would win he would not even bother watching the match.

"Juventus? They are a team of cannibals which gives you little hope," he said.