Napoli have returned to the top of the Serie A table thanks to a 2-0 win over basement side Benevento in Sunday's league clash at the Stadio Ciro Vigorito.

The hosts began brightly against their high-flying opponents as Enrico Brignola, Guilherme and Marco D'Alessandro all came close with a number of early chances.

However, Maurizio Sarri's charges countered with a dangerous effort on 14 minutes that saw Lorenzo Insigne lob the ball over goalkeeper Christian Puggioni but strike the crossbar.

Marek Hamsik then blasted the ball over but Napoli succeeded in taking the lead on 20 minutes when Dries Mertens found the back of the net with a shot-cum-cross from a tight angle.

Napoli were let off the hook on on 40 minutes when Brignola's surge forward saw the ball worked to Berat Djimsiti, who could only find the side-netting when unmarked from 12 yards.

The Partenopei made the most of the reprieve by scoring their second on 47 minutes, Hamsik rifling Jose Callejon's pass across the face of goal into the net from close range.

Benevento were denied a penalty in the 56th minute when Kalidou Koulibaly brought down Andrea Costa, only for VAR to show that one of their players was offside during the build-up.

With 16 minutes to go, Mertens was brought down by a crunching Djimsiti challenge, forcing the Belgian to limp off the pitch.

The incident did not impact on Napoli's performance, however, as they secured all three points and leapfrogged Juventus back into first place.

BENEVENTO (4-3-3): Puggioni; Venuti, Djimsiti, Costa, Letizia; Cataldi, Sandro (Del Pinto 83'), Djuricic (Memushaj 67'); Brignola (Coda 63'), Guilherme, D'Alessandro

NAPOLI (4-3-3): Reina; Hysaj, Koulibaly, Albiol, Rui; Allan, Jorginho (Diawara 78'), Hamsik (Zielinski 69'); Callejon, Mertens (Rog 76'), Insigne