By the time Lewis Ferguson became the most-prolific Scot in Serie A history when he scored against Atalanta in December 2023, Denis Law’s record had stood for 61 years.

The late Manchester United legend netted 10 goals for Torino in his only campaign in Italy, before his compatriot eventually surpassed the tally halfway through his second season with Bologna.

With no Scottish striker plying their trade in calcio’s top tier, Ferguson may have expected to hang on to his record for a while. Instead, he may have to give it up before the season is over with Che Adams and Scott McTominay in hot pursuit.

And if the Torino striker is enjoying a quietly impressive debut season in Serie A with nine league goals to his name, the Napoli midfielder is firing the Azzurri to their second Scudetto in three seasons.

McTominay scored twice on Sunday night as the Partenopei beat Torino 2-0 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to take control of the title race after Inter Milan lost at home to Roma 1-0 earlier in the day.

Having trailed the Nerazzurri for the past two months, Napoli are now three points clear of the reigning Serie A champions with four games to go and the wind firmly in their sails.

McTominay stabbed home the opener seven minutes into the game as he connected with Frank Zambo Anguissa’s cut-back, before powering home his 11th goal of the season four minutes before the break as he converted Matteo Politano’s cross.

“I remember exactly what happened two years ago when Napoli won the league,” he told DAZN after the game.

“That team was seriously good, but we’ll see what happens this time. Right now, however, we’re at the top, so we need to relax, keep our heads, and approach it one game at a time. But winning the Scudetto would mean the world to us.”

In his first season in Naples, McTominay already means the world to Antonio Conte and Neapolitans.

With the brace against Torino the Scot now has five goals in the past three games and has been named Man of the Match in each of them.

So dominant was McTominay’s performance that La Gazzetta dello Sport named him their man of the match, with an 8/10 rating.

“We’ve run out of superlatives to describe him,” was the paper’s succinct verdict.

The 28-year-old has been a revelation in his first season in Serie A following a £27.5m (€30.5m) move from Manchester United in the summer.

With 11 goals McTominay is Napoli’s top-scorer in Serie A behind Lukaku and so significant has been his impact that Conte even abandoned his preferred 3-5-2 to accommodate him in the team, swapping to a four-man defence for the 0-0 draw against Juventus in October and never looking back.

Just as crucially, the Scot has grown into his role as one on Napoli’s leaders when the team needed him the most following Kvicha Kvaratskhelia’s departure to Paris Saint-Germain in January.

In normal circumstances, the Scotland international would be a shoo-in to succeed Ferguson as the recipient of the Bulgarelli No 8 Award, destined to be Serie A’s best midfielder.

If he is not it is simply down to the brilliance of Tijjani Reijnders, the brightest ray of light in an otherwise depressingly gloomy campaign for AC Milan.

Signed from AZ Alkmaar in the summer of 2023 for €20m, the Dutchman only showed glimpses of his talent in his first campaign at the San Siro when there was a feeling he lacked composure in the final third, often finding himself in promising positions only to spurn the openings.

Reijnders’ first season yielded just four goals in 50 appearances across all competitions – a tally that should have been significantly higher. Stefano Pioli, who managed the 26-year-old last term, even joked with him in Riyadh, before the Supercoppa Italiana, about his tendency to shoot wide under his guidance last season.

However, a year later, he’s finding the same spaces, but now with newfound composure, and the goals are coming freely.

Pioli’s observation aligns with the statistics. Reijnders’ accuracy in front of goal has seen a remarkable increase, with his shots on target rising over threefold (0.25 to 0.87 per match). Furthermore, his ability to turn chances into goals has more than doubled, jumping from a 10 per cent to a 23 per cent conversion rate.

And the most significant upswing has been in the most important statistic of all.

Reijnders has 10 goals in Serie A this season, one fewer than McTominay, and his tally of 15 – none of which were penalties – in all competitions place him as the second-highest scoring midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues, behind Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala.

The goals have not only come regularly for the Dutchman, they have come at crucial stages with winners against Monza, Verona, Empoli, Como, Club Brugge, and goals against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and against Inter Milan in the league and Coppa Italia semi-final last week.

While slightly less prolific than McTominay, Reijnders has twice as many assists as the Scot with four and has played more key passes, at an average of 1.33 per 90 minutes versus 0.63.

McTominay takes more shots than his Milan counterpart with 2.33 per game versus 2.12 every 90 minutes and has a better rate of ball recovery per game at 4.30 per game versus 3.06, a figure which underlines his importance in both phases of the game for Napoli.

And while the Scotland international may soon be a Scudetto winner, Reijnders, who has attracted interest from Real Madrid and Manchester City, is just as crucial for the Rossoneri, who could still add the Coppa Italia to the Supercoppa Italiana they won in January.

Whisper it, but two of the most effective midfielders in Europe are playing in Serie A.