Inter By The Numbers

An air of cautious optimism permeates through La Pinetina as Inter sits in fourth place after the first 12 rounds of the Serie A season.

The Nerazzurri have collected 25 points and are just three behind Napoli in the race for the last Champions League spot.

Massimo Moratti finalized the sale of 70% of the club to an Indonesian consortium headed by Erick Thohir and the new majority owners have promised some star-studded reinforcements in January for the stretch run.

Javier Zanetti made his triumphant return from a torn Achilles... in near record time... at the age of 40. And all our beloved captain did was bring the Meazza faithful to their feet with one of his trademark runs that helped set up Inter's second goal of the game.

Eveything should be fine and dandy at Appiano Gentile where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. Well it's never that straightforward with Inter as the fans are always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The defense has been criticized in some quarters following the debacle against Roma and for conceding late one too many late equalizers.

Not all Interisti are enamoured with Thohir, especially after seeing DC United and the Philadelphia 76ers struggle mightily in recent years.

Does he have any ulterior motives for purchasing the club? Will he keep Walter Mazzarri? Will he really fund a new stadium?

Anyways, I've gone on far too long now so we'll let the numbers do the talking and then we'll decide where we stand.

12

Amount of points Inter is ahead of Milan in the standings. The Rossoneri also looked dead and buried around this time last season but Adriano Galliani was determined to sneak into the Champions League by hook or by crook. And they did. In the most Milan way possible. With a last second penalty in the last game of the season. We'll see what kind of tomfoolery transpires during the remainder of the campaign.

1

Losses suffered by Inter so far this term. If you told me before the season started that the Nerazzurri would only have one defeat after 12 matches I would have called you a stronzo. Mazzarri has been a magic maker and let's hope he continues to confound opponents for the next 26 rounds.

7

Goals scored in one game against Sassuolo. Inter hauled off on the Serie A new boys. Crtics blew off the Beneamata's emphatic victory due to the weak opposition but are now singing a different tune after the Neroverdi's recent results.

5

Clean sheets Inter has kept so far this season. The Nerazzurri held the opposition scoreless five times in their final 20 games of the last campaign so believe it or not the defense is making progress here. I'll feel much better when Hugo Campagnaro returns though.

0

Penalties awarded to Inter. It's clear that we can't buy a call from the referees (see what I did there) this season while Milan is seemingly handed a 90th minute penalty every couple of weeks and Juve is the only team in Serie A that is exempt from the offside rule. It's business as usual in Italy.

29

Goals Inter has scored this season. Rodrigo Palacio has found the back of the net seven times while Ricky Alvarez has chipped in with four goals. This is not a category I expected Inter to lead the league in but I'll take it any day of the week and hope it continues.