Inter Milan 1-0 Roma: Initial Reaction

Well that was intense. After Medel had opened the scoring, the defense pulled through once again to secure a massive three points. Roma were pushing for a goal throughout the match but once Pjanic was sent off for a second yellow their threat seemed to diminish. This allowed the Nerazzurri to go 1 point clear of Roma and 3 points clear of Napoli and Fiorentina who play tomorrow.

• With Melo playing so well so far this season, Medel's impressive performances has seemingly gone under the radar. But not today, before he had to be replaced he did an excellent job patrolling in front of the defense. Plus he score that beautiful goal. Your move Melo...

• When the lineups were released, there were a lot of raised eyebrows. I'll talk about dropping Icardi in the full match review, but the other big surprises were the inclusions of D'Ambrosio and Nagatomo against the pace of Gervinho and Salah. I did not expect that to go well at all but they both had exceptional matches. So hats off to them and to Mancini for making the right call there
• Guarin wore the captain's armband today but did not put in a worthy display. His passes were erratic and committed a stupid foul and got a yellow card. He has passion but needs to consistently channel it into playing effectively.
• Perisic had a very mixed game. He did great defensively and was constantly tracking back and making himself available. Offensively he did not do all that well. His final ball was lacking, and he had a huge chance to double Inter's lead towards the end of the match but didn't take it.
• Let's talk about Handanovic. Actually that's not even necessary just re-watch this: