Inter moved four points clear at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 victory over Cristian Chivu's former club Parma, having shuffled their pack ahead of Sunday's showdown with Napoli.

After watching Napoli draw 2-2 with Verona earlier on Wednesday, the Nerazzurri strengthened their cushion over both the Scudetto holders and AC Milan, albeit having played one game more than the latter.

They did so despite resting Alessandro Bastoni and limiting Nicolo Barella, Francesco Acerbi, Ange-Yoan Bonny and Marcus Thuram to appearances off the bench.

The woodwork was struck three times in the first half, with Yann Bisseck and Francesco Pio Esposito doing so for Inter and Jacob Ondrejka seeing an acrobatic volley turned onto the upright by Yann Sommer at the other end.

But Inter did go into half-time with the lead, with Federico Dimarco's near-post finish in the 42nd-minute initially ruled out for offside, but then awarded following a VAR review.

Petar Sucic missed an excellent chance to double Inter's lead when he broke through one-on-one in the second half, but the visitors got the clinching goal their professional performance warranted eight minutes into stoppage time.

Thuram latched onto Barella's throughball to make the points safe, moments after fellow substitute Bonny saw a strike disallowed for a handball in the build-up.

Data Debrief: Inter rival best-ever starts

Inter have now won six successive Serie A matches to take control of the Scudetto race, while this is their 14th victory after 18 matchdays in 2025-26.

It is the seventh time they have reached that mark 18 games into a season and the fifth time in the three-points-per-win era. Only in 2006-07 (15 wins) have they achieved more victories at this stage of a top-flight campaign.

Inter have also scored at least 40 goals after 18 games in five of their last six Serie A seasons, as many times as they did in their previous 70 top-flight campaigns. 

Dimarco set them on their way with his goal, and his eight goal involvements this season (three goals, five assists) are the joint-most of any defender in Europe's top five leagues, alongside Bayer Leverkusen's Alejandro Grimaldo.