Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw by Genoa in the Serie A earlier this week despite Genoa playing most of the match with 10 men.
Dries Mertens scored the only goal for Napoli but it was quickly cancelled out by a strike from Lazovic right on the stroke of half-time.
And speaking after the game, Carlo Ancelotti was visibly fuming at his team’s performance and went on to claim that Arsenal could cause serious problems when the two sides meet at the Emirates this Thursday.
Ancelotti said: “We’re defending badly at the moment, even when it was 11 against 10, and that means we cannot control the game.
“If you control the game, you don’t allow counter-attacks, you don’t let the opposition to turn and run at you.
“It’s an alarm bell, certainly, because if we play like this in London, then we’re in trouble.
“It is unusual to see Napoli doing that, so we have four days to focus back on the basics because these are basics we’re getting wrong.”
While Napoli are sweating over their cohesiveness, Arsenal, on the other hand, are dealing with their own problems.
The Gunners lost their previous league encounter 1-0 at the hands of Everton and Emery claimed after the match that his team played two different styles of football during the two halves.
Emery said: “The two halves were very different. First half we were consistent defensively but didn’t create a lot of attacking moments and they scored from a throw-in.
“In the second half we were better offensively but defensively there were more chances for them,”
Napoli also have a slight advantage over their Europa League rivals this Thursday because the likes of Granit Xhaka and Laurent Koscielny are facing a race against time in order to be fit and available for selection.
