Juventus vs. Napoli: 5 Things We Learned from the Bianconeri's 3-0 Win

After a tight but enthralling 3-3 draw in Juventus' first matchup with Napoli, most spectators expected that they would be treated to another close but goal-filled game.

In the end, the goals were there Sunday, but the game was very much one-sided, as Juventus dominated a good Napoli side three goals to zero.

The win cut the gap at the top of the table to just two points for Juventus, whereas the loss for Napoli kept them three points adrift of the all-important third place possessed by Lazio, who also lost to a plucky Parma side.

Will Juventus have enough to catch AC Milan down the stretch? We'll break that down and more over the next five slides.

Antonio Conte Used Walter Mazzari's Tactics Against Him

Juventus' most common formation this season has been an offensively minded 4-3-3, with Andrea Pirlo sitting deeper than Claudio Marchisio, and Arturo Vidal orchestrating his team's offense.

This formation has been altered in a number of ways this season, with Marchisio sometimes asked to play further back with Pirlo for a more defensive formation. On other occasions, this formation is changed into a 4-2-3-1, with Vidal playing as an attacking midfielder with two wingers on either side of him.

Today, however, knowing that Napoli are renowned for their 3-4-1-2, Conte decided to reply with a 3-5-2, a formation he's only utilized on five previous occasions for Juve.

The change worked however. It didn't allow Juve to dominate possession, but it gave the team much added width that stretched Napoli's overworked three-man defense.

Though Juve were unable to penetrate Napoli's defense in the first half, fatigue eventually set in and Juve's consistent pressure paid off as Bonucci scored a rather fortuitous opener.

From there, Vidal's world-class skill and finish put Juventus comfortably ahead, and Fabio Quagliarella added the icing on the cake.

Would another formation have yielded the same result? Maybe, but maybe not. What we do know is that Conte's bold change worked, even with the rather modest performances of Paolo De Ceglie and Stephen Lichtsteiner/Martin Caceres.

For that, Conte deserves some praise.

Conte Needs to Decide Who His Best Strikers Are

Where Conte deserves zero praise for is his choice of striker. Today, Conte had at his disposal Alessandro Del Piero, who has scored in both of his last two games, Fabio Quagliarella and Alessandro Matri.

I don't blame Conte for benching Matri considering his poor form recently, but why start the ever-ineffective Marco Borriello over Quagliarella?

I've ranted enough about how bad Borriello is, so I won't spend too much time doing so again here, but really, there is a massive gulf in class between Guagliarella and Borriello. Even today, when Quagliarella was not at his best in his short end-of-the-game cameo, that should've been evident.

At this point, having given most of Juve's striker plenty of playing time, it should be easy for Conte to see that Quagliarella is the striker to trust down the stretch, and Matri is a good option if he can find the net more consistently or add more diversity to his play.

And as for Del Piero, if he's on form, there's no reason to not play him until he goes out of form again. 

But names like Marco Borriello, those should be benched until Juve have the opportunity to ship him back to Roma in the summer.

Napoli's Triumvirate Did Not Rise to the Occasion

Napoli went into this game with arguably more to play for.

Coming off a seventh-place finish last season, it's safe to say that should Juventus fail to win first place, they will still have had a very successful season. That the team is still unbeaten as we approach the end of the season is incredibly remarkable.

But for Napoli, finishing outside of the top three would bring an awkward stop the rapid and impressive progress made by the club over the last few seasons.

Napoli had a good run in the Champions League this year that they should be proud of, even if they went out in poor circumstances. Not having the opportunity to fight in the Champions League again next season might seriously destabilize the core of this team that makes it the dangerous team it is.

It seems as though Napoli were unaware of these stakes in this game.

Ezequiel Lavezzi, the team's creative live wire or X-factor, as I like to refer to him, could do nothing against Juventus' offense.

He did a lot of running, but otherwise, there were no killer balls played in by the Argentinian, nor situations where he took on the defense successfully to seriously threaten Juve's defense. He had one chance when Marek Hamsik played him on goal in the 15th minute, but that chance was wasted.

The same applies to Hamsik, who, aside from that one moment, had a largely anonymous game. Due to his anonymity, Edinson Cavani was denied service and could do little to threaten Juve's defense.

Poor overall performance by Napoli's much-hyped three-star attack.

Arturo Vidal Was the Best Player on the Pitch

I'll admit: Prior to Vidal's transfer to Juventus, I'd not seen much of his play, since I don't have a cable package that gives me access to German football and was never interested in watching Bayer Leverkusen's games anyway.

But I imagine that the skill and poise he showed today is the skill and poise that allowed him to score 10 goals and assist 11 others in the Bundesliga. I imagine it's also that same skill, poise and ability that led pundits to hype him up as one of the best central midfielders in the Bundesliga last season.

Even though I do credit Conte for selecting the right tactics to get his team the win, the truth is that Vidal's overall brilliance was probably the most significant difference between the two teams.

Vidal won two aerial challenges, seven tackles, 61 passes and, most importantly, won the game for Juve with some top footwork that will likely give Hugo Campagnero nightmares for the next week.

Andrea Pirlo actually outshone Vidal in a number of categories, but Vidal gave the best overall game of any player on the pitch. I've never rated Vidal too highly among the world's best midfielders, but with more performances like these, he's sure to force his name among the best in the business.

Leandro Bonucci Showed Up His Doubters

Most players usually see their profile and plaudits increase significantly when they move from a small club to a big club. 

But for Bonucci, his move from Juventus to Bari has not been one that's worked out smoothly for him.

After having an excellent debut season with Bari in 2009-10, in which he started every single Serie A match, was called up to the Italian national team and was hyped as the country's best center-back after Giorgio Chiellini, Bonucci stock fell dramatically after an error-filled 2010-11 season.

Bonucci, often rightly but sometimes wrongly, was one of the biggest scapegoats for another poor season for Juventus that saw them finish seventh in the table.

This year, Bonucci faced even more pressure for his place in the team with the addition of experienced Italian center-back Andrea Barzagli, whose excellent performances soon resulted in less playing time for Bonucci.

In his last four games, Bonucci had seen his playing time cut significantly. He was brought on as as substitute twice and dropped once in the team's last four games.

But today, Bonucci put in a top-quality performance, one that some believed was worthy of recognition as the best in the game.

Bonucci was fortunate to be in the right place in the right time for his opener, but defensively, he put in a performance arguably better than any of the ones he's put in this season. 

He completed three tackles, two interceptions and three clearances, and blocked a shot as well. Very impressively, he completed 32 of 33 passes, in a near-flawless performance.

More of these performances will surely have Bonucci back in the good graces of manager Antonio Conte.