Roma kept up the pressure at the top of the Serie A standings with a convincing 2-0 victory at the expense of Napoli on Sunday.

Simone Perrotta broke the deadlock early on and Francesco Totti added a penalty at the start of the second half to earn Luciano Spalletti’s men their third victory in seven days and their first away success since January 13 when they beat Atalanta.

The result allows Roma to close the gap on leaders Internazionale to six points, but Napoli’s hopes of a European place suffered a setback with the team now seven points adrift of sixth-placed Udinese with 11 matches remaining. The Giallorossi travelled to Naples in a confident mood after their 4-0 victory over Parma last weekend was followed by success over Real Madrid in the Champions League, securing a place in the last eight of Europe’s elite club competition.

And the visitors took just two minutes to make their presence felt at Stadio San Paolo. A mistake by Matteo Contini in the Napoli defence allowed Totti to pounce and provide a delightful ball for Perrotta, who calmly slotted beyond Matteo Gianello.

A similar move in the 24th minute almost produced a second goal for Roma as Totti played in Perrotta with another defence-splitting pass. But Gianello was alert to the threat this time and made a superb intervention with his feet to deny the midfielder. Totti continued to put pressure on the Napoli defence and after 35 minutes the Italy international burst through before unleashing a powerful shot that flew narrowly wide.

The Roma captain had another chance moments later when he picked up a pass from Alberto Aquilani to find himself one on one with Gianello. But the goalkeeper produced another impressive save with his legs to thwart the visitors once more.

Napoli finally saw a glimpse of goal shortly before the interval when a speculative left-footed shot from Daniele Mannini warmed the palms of Doni in the Roma net. But the Giallorossi got the second goal their performance deserved four minutes after the restart.

Mannini gave away a penalty for a rash tackle on Cicinho, with Totti calmly converting from the spot to mark his 500th appearance for the club with a goal. Fabiano Santacroce had the chance to pull a goal back for Napoli six minutes later but his header went narrowly wide of the mark, while at the other end Gianello was called upon to make another timely intervention to turn away Mirko Vucinic’s drive.

Napoli finally had the ball in the back of the net in the 63rd minute when Marek Hamsik stabbed a Ezequiel Lavezzi pass beyond Doni. But the celebrations were short-lived as Hamsik was adjudged to be offside.

The hosts took heart from the chance though and Doni was put to the test soon after by Maurizio Domizzi’s fierce drive which was palmed away by the Roma custodian. And further chances from Domizzi and Marcelo Zalayeta also missed the target much to the frustration of the hosts as Roma held on for an important three points in their challenge for the Scudetto.