Simone Inzaghi lauded his Inter players for an outstanding first half of the Serie A season, pointing out a successful defence of the Scudetto was not always widely expected.
Inter are favourites for a second straight title heading into the second half of the campaign having created a gap at the top of the table through 19 matchweeks.
In beating Torino 1-0 on Wednesday, the Nerazzurri moved seven points clear of Napoli and Milan, who were both in action later the same day.
But Inter had to withstand a tumultuous off-season to get to this point, losing coach Antonio Conte and star players Romelu Lukaku, Achraf Hakimi and, to health issues, Christian Eriksen.
It was not necessarily a given then that the champions would maintain their form from last term, reaching the end of 2021 having scored 104 goals (the most since Milan s 120 in 1950) and won 32 matches (trailing only Juventus 33 in 2016) in Serie A.
The Torino game, settled by Denzel Dumfries latest strike, was not Inter s best display either but marked a sixth straight win without conceding for the first time in their top-flight history.
A delighted Inzaghi, who left Lazio to join Inter at the end of last season, told a news conference: I immediately had great confidence when I joined and met the squad.
Now, it is probably convenient for everyone to saw that Inter are a juggernaut and are the favourites, but I remember in July that s now what people were saying.
32 Inter won 32 league games in 2021: in history only Juventus in 2016 (33) gained more wins in a single calendar year. Unstoppable.
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo)
The players have been good, but for us these results must be motivation to keep pushing, as a journey full of pitfalls awaits us.
Dumfries is not an obvious difference-maker in the final third, scoring twice in 30 Eredivisie games for PSV last season, but he now has three in 16 in Serie A.
Five team-mates have four goals or more, with Inter now boasting options in attack as well as an increasingly sturdy defence.
Defender Alessandro Bastoni told DAZN: We ve gone on a good run of not conceding goals after a tough start.
It was important to re-establish a solid defence in line with what we were doing last season and we re doing great in that regard.
Coach Simone Inzaghi s approach gives us an element of surprise which we were perhaps lacking last year. We have a great time together on the pitch and we get on great together. The new players have slotted right in.
We re on a great winning run and we want to keep this up. We want to experience the feeling of winning the Scudetto, which we got to enjoy last season.
