Things haven't always been easy for Napoli. While historically a top flight side, the club had never won a Serie A title until Diego Maradona arrived at the San Paolo in 1986, and later spent eight years away from Italy's biggest stage between 1998 and 2007, which even included a bankruptcy and financial demotion to Serie C.
It has been brighter since, though. After re-establishing themselves in Serie A, Napoli have qualified for the Champions League four times since 2011.
They have twice finished second behind champions Juventus in the last four seasons, their highest placing since the last of the two scudetti delivered by Maradona in 1990. And now, Napoli are the most exciting team in Europe's best leagues, according to the stats.
Whoscored contributor Tiago Estevao has collated a sizeable table covering key goalscoring statistics for the four best attacks (goals scored) from the continent's top six leagues (UEFA coefficient).
Here's a table I made on the top goalscoring teams in Europe at the moment.
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Napoli have scored the fifth most goals per game at a rate of 2.32 - only Bayern Munich (2.5), Real Madrid (2.65), Barcelona (2.85) and Monaco (2.9) have been finding the net more often.
But beyond goals alone, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Napoli are the most exciting.For example, there is a 51/49% split between goals scored at home and away.
For many top sides there is a noticeable skew in favour of scoring more frequently at home. Bayern is 63/37, as are Chelsea, while Juventus are 66/34 and Liverpool are 60/40.
Napoli are entertaining their fans wherever they go.
In terms of shot per game and chances created per game, the Gli Azzurri are right up there with Europe's very best. Real Madrid lead the continent in terms of attempts at a rate of 17.6 per game, only 0.1 more than Napoli. Likewise, only the reigning European champions have created more chances per game - 13.77 compared to Napoli's 13.39.
Napoli are managing an average of seven shots on target per game. No other team has been testing opposition goalkeepers on such a regular basis. Monaco, Europe's top scorers, have had 6.2 shots on target per game in comparison.
Maurizio Sarri's are spreading it around in terms of where they shoot from as well. There is a fairly even 53/47% split between inside the penalty area and outside the penalty area. For most clubs, shots inside the box make up well in excess of 60% of their total - only Tottenham have a more even inside/outside split at 51/49.
The vast majority of Napoli's goals this season have come from open play. Italy's current third place team have scored just 18% of their goals from set pieces. That's as low a proportion asany other side can boast. One in every three Monaco goals has come from a set piece. The same can be said of Paris Saint-Germain, while even Real Madrid have scored 29% of their goals from dead ball situations.
And when it comes to individual scorers, Napoli are not as reliant on a single goal scorer as a number of other clubs. Belgian forward Dries Mertens has scored 19 to account for 29% of Napoli's Serie A goals.
Lionel Messi has scored 30% of Barcelona's, Robert Lewandowski has scored 35% of Bayern's and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 43% of Borussia Dortmund's.Edinson Cavani has scored nearly half (47%) of PSG's goals.
Napoli may not be the best team in Europe this season, but based on the numbers it seems they are certainly the most exciting and entertaining.
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