Roma vs. Inter: a clash of titans
The best against the best. Ahead of the elongated international break, Serie A throws up its first true top-of-the-table clash of the season. Roma and Inter face off at the Olimpico, and both sides have four wins from their first four matches. The two teams are ready to compete for sole control of first place and lay down a marker for the rest of the league.
On 12 points apiece, both clubs have played brilliantly and garnered plaudits from outside Italy’s borders. Roma and Inter are two of the few teams still to have a perfect record in Europe’s top-five leagues, alongside Barcelona, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich.
For the first time since 1960
The last time Roma and Inter both had a perfect record after four games was all the way back in 1960/61, when the pair had 12 points from a possible 12 alongside Juventus. More than 60 years later, the Olimpico once again plays host to a meeting between the Giallorossi and Nerazzurri, neither having dropped a single point.
This is the first time since 2014/15, when Rudi Garcia’s side kept pace with Allegri’s Juventus, that Roma have won their first four league games. Before Gasperini, the Giallorossi had managed four straight wins to start the Serie A season on just four occasions; however, Roma did not win the Scudetto in any of those campaigns.
The last time Inter kept a perfect record through four league matches was three years ago, in 2023/24, when the Nerazzurri won the league and claimed their second star. The last occasion on which the Nerazzurri were level on points with another team at this stage was in 2017/18 (level with Juventus and Napoli).
League-leading numbers
The two teams’ supremacy this season isn’t only about the points. Roma and Inter are leading the way in attack, occupying the top two spots in a host of offensive categories, starting simply with goals scored: 13 for the Nerazzurri and 12 for the Giallorossi.
They are first and second for xG and xG difference, shots on target per 90 (Inter 8, Roma 7.8), and touches in the opposition penalty area (183 for Roma, 177 for Inter). Out wide, the numbers are similar too: Inter have 8.3 completed crosses per game to Roma’s 7.3. The two teams are level when it comes to goals following passing sequences: 10 apiece.
While the numbers may be similar, the styles used to get there are very different. Roma tend to press high and with intensity, looking to win the ball back and win their one-v-ones. Inter, meanwhile, attain their attacking numbers with more measured possession, longer passing sequences, and considered management of the ball.
Roma, pressing and one-v-ones
In reality, the Giallorossi’s rich vein of form began before August. Roma ended last season with five straight wins and have now added four more this season, making it nine consecutive victories in Serie A.
Gasperini’s team try to recover the ball as close to the opposition goal as possible. Their 7.82 passes per defensive action is the third-lowest figure in the league, and Roma are first for recoveries in the final third: six per game, double that of Inter (three, placing them 12th).
Once they regain possession, the Giallorossi have technicians who can create an overload by winning their one-v-ones. Roma lead the way in Serie A for completed dribbles: 41 to Inter’s 21 (17th). It’s a talent shared across the squad: from Malen to Soulé and Mora, as well as Ghilari and Mancini, who can beat the press and break the lines with a strong run.
Up top, Gasperini has a duo who combine brilliantly. Donyell Malen and Paulo Dybala combine different yet complementary characteristics. The Dutchman looks to get in behind with his pace, acceleration and eye for goal, and the Argentinian rewards those runs with a killer final ball, excellent reading of the game and quality between the lines.
Malen, who tops the goalscoring charts with six goals already, will come up against an Inter defence that has looked susceptible at times this season. The Nerazzurri have conceded six times so far, while Roma have let in just one, a league low.
Inter, the ball does the talking
Inter build their territorial dominance through other means. Chivu’s team love to take control of the game and keep the ball, as demonstrated by their average possession figure of 66%, the highest in the league. Roma, meanwhile, are third on 59.8%.
No team completes more passes than the Nerazzurri, who are also second-best for possession lost: just 52 times to the Giallorossi’s 75. Their quality in how they manage possession is then directly transferred into their attacking threat: Inter have taken 100 shots in their first four games, 25 per match.
What’s impressive is how the goalscoring burden is distributed. In just 360 minutes of football, nine different Inter players have hit the back of the net: Çalhanoğlu, Pio Esposito, Lautaro, Thuram, Barella, Bisseck, Bonny, Carlos Augusto and Zielinski. Furthermore, among the outfield players utilised by Chivu thus far, only Sučić has not registered a single shot.
Despite this distribution, the duo of ThuLa remains the chief attacking threat. Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram were key to the Nerazzurri’s comeback against Napoli, and a week later, with their Argentinian captain on the bench, the Frenchman scored again against Udinese.
Those two games exemplify the character of this new-look Inter team. For two straight matches, the Nerazzurri have found themselves 2-0 down and then gone on to win the game. This ability to react has allowed Chivu’s side to arrive at the Olimpico with a perfect record, despite having the eleventh-best defence in the league.
Thuram has been key to their great start, and his form has been building for some time: since the start of April, only Malen (15) has had more goal involvements than the Frenchman in Serie A: 12, with eight goals and four assists.
Two open accounts
Roma vs. Inter also brings with it a match within the match.
The first has to do with Gasperini. The Roma boss is winless in his last 17 games against Inter: five draws and 12 defeats, including ten losses in his last ten meetings. The wait for a Roma win at the Olimpico has been almost as long. The Giallorossi’s last home win against Inter was in October 2016 (2-1), with Luciano Spalletti in the dugout for Roma and Frank de Boer for Inter.
For Chivu, on the other hand, the game at the Olimpico is a chance to break one of the trends of last season. In their hunt for the Scudetto, the Nerazzurri did not beat Napoli or AC Milan in the league, recording three losses and a draw in those four games against their title rivals.
The new season has offered up a different story, however, as Inter managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Napoli on Matchday 3. Roma have upped the ante, though, and this clash will tell us how well the Nerazzurri’s early-season doggedness can stand up to an in-form opponent. It may only be Matchday 5, but Roma vs. Inter could tell us plenty about both teams’ title credentials.