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• Conte: Napoli need to focus on improvement, not Serie A lead

  Napoli should pay little attention to their place at the top of Serie A, so says Antonio Conte, who has demanded improvement from his team.

  Romelu Lukaku's second-half goal handed Napoli a 1-0 win over Roma on Sunday.

  That victory sent Napoli back to the summit of Serie A, with Conte's side one point ahead of Atalanta, Inter, Fiorentina and Lazio, while Juventus are only four points back in a six-team title race.

  Napoli needed to get back to winning ways after a draw against Inter and a 3-0 loss to Atalanta before the international break, and Conte insists his team must sharpen up.

  "Before the match, I told the lads not to look at the table, but to focus on ourselves and improving what we are working on," Conte told Sky Sport Italia.

  "I maintain that now too because we need to take a series of steps to raise the level.

  "I was satisfied with the performance for a good 65 minutes today, we could’ve taken more of our chances and were up against a strong Roma who have great players.

  "Roma were also making their debut under a new coach and therefore were very eager to prove themselves, but we still should've dealt with the final 15-20 minutes better, as we sat too deep and made it complicated for ourselves."

  Roma, playing under new boss Claudio Ranieri, came close to equalising when Artem Dovbyk hit the woodwork with a header. 

  Ranieri came out of retirement to take charge of Roma following Ivan Juric's dismissal earlier in November, though the visitors had just six shots and accumulated only 0.6 expected goals (xG) at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

  "If we look back, we have some problems and that is why I was called. We were up against a team that is fighting to win the Scudetto," Ranieri told Sky Sport Italia.

  "Having said all of that, I am happy with the performance from my players. We made some mistakes that we will talk about during the week, but the hunger, the determination to get back on track was there.

  "We have a lot of work to do, but I feel positive.

  "We know there is work to be done, we have to focus on reacting rather than sitting there feeling sorry for ourselves.

  "The [players] need the right character to help themselves and then others. Naturally, when I arrived, the team was a little closed up, but I think we started to open up a bit by the second half."

• Napoli 1-0 Roma: Lukaku downs former club on Ranieri's return

  Claudio Ranieri's Roma return was spoilt by Romelu Lukaku, whose goal against his old club sealed a 1-0 win for Napoli.

  Ranieri was appointed Roma boss over the international break, with the 73-year-old coming out of retirement to take charge of the club for a third time.

  Yet it was ex-Roma striker Lukaku who decided Sunday's contest at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, with his 54th-minute effort sending Antonio Conte's team back to the top of Serie A.

  Lukaku was well-placed to convert from Giovanni Di Lorenzo's cutback, bringing up his fifth Serie A goal of the campaign.

  Roma, who had just two attempts and managed only 0.07 expected goals (xG) in the first half, woke up after Lukaku's goal, with Artem Dovbyk powering a header off the woodwork from a free-kick minutes later, but the visitors' comeback attempts proved fruitless.

  Ranieri's next task is to rally his troops for a Europa League clash with Tottenham on Thursday.

  Data Debrief: Ranieri's underwhelming return

  There was no sign of an immediate upturn for 12th-place Roma, if they were hoping for a new-coach bounce.

  Roma ended the first half with fewer than 70 successful passes (68). It is the first time they have had so few successful passes in the opening half of a league game since 2004-05.

  With only three wins to their name in the league, they have won fewer than four matches in their opening 13 Serie A games for the first time since the 1978-79 campaign (also three).

  And of course, it had to be Lukaku, who was leading their line last season, that delivered the hammer blow. The Belgium international has been involved in nine goals in Serie A this term (five goals, four assists). Only his former Everton club-mate Ademola Lookman, now a star at Atalanta, has contributed to more goals in the competition (seven goals, four assists).

• Fonseca urges Milan to take more risks after lifeless Juventus draw

  Paulo Fonseca urged Milan to take more risks in future and sympathised with the fans who booed his players after an unexciting goalless draw with Juventus.

  The two sides played out a game that included just three shots on target - one fell to Milan and two to Juve - while a chorus of boos greeted the full-time whistle.

  Milan have not scored in two home matches in a row in Serie A for the first time since October-November 2023 (vs Juventus and Udinese in that case).

  "When you don't win, and after a match like this, maybe if I was a fan I'd do the same," Fonseca told DAZN.

  "I'm not a defender of this and I understand the fans perfectly."

  Milan's only real chance before the break came through Emerson Royal, who headed wide of the near post after a corner, while a weak Theo Hernandez header straight at Michele Di Gregorio in added time was their only effort on target.

  They registered just two shots in the first half, and only three times before have they managed less (on record from 2004-05), with two of those instances also coming against Juve.

  "It was a very tactical match. The team had too much respect for Juve and Juve too much respect for us," Fonseca said.

  "We know that Juve defend very well, it is not easy to have opportunities against them and those we had to attack we did not exploit well.

  "We could have done something more offensively, we made a mistake in the last pass and we never took risks. It is not easy against Juve, but when we have the opportunity, we have to do better in the final decisions.

  "The team always had the will to play safe but, if we want to score, we have to take more risks. Normally, we always create different situations. Today the team didn't take any offensive risks."

  When asked if seventh-placed Milan - on 19 points with a game in hand - still stood a chance in the title battle, Fonseca responded affirmatively.

  "It's difficult for other people, but I still believe. There are still many games and other teams can lose points," he said.