Napoli director Giovanni Manna believes it is “premature” to call tonight's showdown with Milan a “Scudetto battle” and warns that tougher times lie ahead.

It starts at 7.45pm GMT in San Siro.

You can follow all the build-up and action from this game, Cagliari-Bologna and Lecce-Verona, on the live blog.

The Partenopei are at the top of Serie A and have extended their lead thanks to Sunday's 4-4 thriller between Inter and Juventus.

“It is certainly premature to call this a Scudetto fight, it is a game between great teams in a wonderful arena,” Manna told DAZN.

“We know where we started and what work we are doing, but I think it's too early to talk about the title. There are teams in better shape than us who have laid more foundations in recent years.”

Milan will be decimated ahead of the game by suspensions for Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders, flu symptoms for Christian Pulisic and injuries to Tammy Abraham, Luka Jovic, Matteo Gabbia, Alessandro Florenzi and Ismael Bennacer.

Napoli in pole position for Scudetto

On the other hand, Napoli are only missing Stanislav Lobotka, who will be replaced by summer signing Billy Gilmour from Brighton and Hove Albion.

“Difficulties are the order of the day, we must remain humble and try to do our best every day. “We are playing against a strong Milan team, after Juventus they are perhaps the best opponent we have played against this season,” Manna added.

“We started with the idea of ​​rebuilding the core of the team and adding new players in the summer. There are already some very good results, we are objectively satisfied with what we have done so far, although we are aware that there will be even more difficult moments to come.”