Four wins from their first four games put Inter top of the group with 12 points, two ahead of their other fierce rivals, Juventus, who beat Lazio 3-1 in the day’s opener.
Milan moved one point further into third place after a humiliating first defeat of the season before hosting Newcastle United in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Cheered on by most of the boisterous and raucous San Siro crowd, Inter secured their fifth consecutive derthrough win in all competitions thanks to a brace from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, rocket from Marcus Thuram and two late moves from Hakan Calhanoglu and Davide Frattesi.
Simone Inzaghi’s side tackled things with a display that showed why they overcame Milan to reach the Champions League final last season and showed their prestige as favourites to beat their home rivals for a twentieth Scudetto.
“We have a brilliant season and we need to continue,” Mkhitaryan told DAZN.
“We’re all here for the same goal, and I don’t care who plays. . . The coach will be the one who will give his most productive star at the moment (in the shirt of 20 titles). “
Thuram continued his quick start in an Inter shirt, with the new player also scoring Mkhitaryan’s first goal in the fifth minute.
France striker Thuram beat Malick Thiaw before locating Federico Dimarco, whose missed shot went through the former Armenian midfielder.
And Thuram then underlined Inter’s superiority seven minutes before half-time, after a lightning breakaway started by Lautaro Martinez, recovering from Denzel Dumfries before cutting off the hapless Thiaw and crashing in an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area.
The game looked dead and buried with forty-five minutes to go, but Rafael Leao halved the deficit in the 57th minute by marking his moment of the season after a brilliant assist from Olivier Giroud.
Leao’s arrival was Inter’s first goal conceded this season and as a heavy downpour lashed the San Siro, Mkhitaryan silenced Milan’s strong ‘outside’ with his second deflection of the night after being fed by Martinez.
Calhanoglu’s penalty in the 79th minute and a fine end to stoppage time from Frattesi, after Tuesday’s brace for Italy on the same pitch, added insults to Milan and coach Stefano Pioli.
“I don’t think we love our fans. Do you think we were looking to concede five goals to Inter?”said a defiant Pioli who, in 2023, lost every Milan derby by an aggregate score of 12-1.
“We’re disappointed, but you ask for forgiveness when you don’t do something intentionally. “
Napoli’s defence continued to falter in Genoa, where the champions rallied from a two-goal lead to take a point behind.
Rudi Garcia’s side, beaten by Lazio before the international break, are five points behind Inter after the draw at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris thanks to late 15-minute goals from Italian foreigners Giacomo Raspadori and Matteo Politano.
“We have some work to do, but we had very little time to prepare for this match because a lot of players came back yesterday (from overseas duty),” Politano told Sky Sport in Italy.
Mattia Bani gave Genoa the lead five minutes before the break before Italy striker Mateo Retegui swept into second place with a pass from Kevin Strootman in the 56th minute.
Retegui has scored two goals since joining from Boca Juniors in July and Saturday’s goal looked very likely to give Genoa a very good win of the campaign.
But Napoli didn’t give up and bounced back when Raspadori scored his first goal of the season in the 76th minute.
And Politano salvaged the equaliser for Napoli with six minutes remaining thanks to a brilliant volley from a lofted pass from Piotr Zielinski.