With so much at stake, nobody could be overly surprised that it took just four minutes for Lautaro Martínez to see the game’s first booking, which was given for a foul on Wesley.
More importantly, though, his strike partner Ange-Yoan Bonny broke Roma’s offside trap, and – despite seemingly expecting the flag to go up – he beat Mile Svilar for the opener just six minutes into proceedings.
Bryan Cristante’s header then came agonisingly close to equalling the scoreline, before Henrikh Mkhitaryan squandered a chance to double the Nerazzurri’s lead.
There was a period where the Giallorossi looked lost and frustrated in equal measure, but they avoided conceding a second and started trying to cause problems going the opposite direction.
Evan Ndicka became the second home player to head off-target from a corner, but Gian Piero Gasperini’s side still struggled to break down the wall of white shirts in front of them with their intricate play. Inter also carried a threat going the other way, as hinted at by the level of cynicism shown by Ndicka when he pulled down Bonny to earn a yellow card.
That temperament continued into the second period, with Martinez heading wide and Denzel Dumfries being denied after a blistering counter within five minutes of the restart.
Yann Sommer then stood up to deny Paulo Dybala following a defence-splitting Manu Kone pass and stopped Mario Hermoso’s header, before Zeki Celik then saw a shot deflected into the side netting for a corner, which was nodded back to substitute Artem Dovbyk, who missed the target from the golden opportunity.
With time ticking on, Sommer then held Matias Soulé’s shot, before Alessandro Bastoni’s attempt at the other end was deflected marginally wide.
Mkhitaryan grazed the post with his late effort, but Inter still did enough to record their sixth consecutive win across all competitions to join Napoli and Roma on 15 points.
AC Milan could overtake that trio and lead the way come Monday, and will do just that if they beat Fiorentina in their next game on Sunday evening, but the Nerazzurri will enjoy being at the summit nonetheless.
Meanwhile, Roma will be eager to get back on track very quickly, as even though this is only the second defeat they have suffered in Serie A this term, it’s now two defeats from their last three across all competitions.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ange-Yoan Bonny (Inter Milan)