A screamer, a wobble, then fifteen minutes that settled it at San Siro

Six minutes in, Hakan Çalhanoglu picked the ball up 25 yards out, hit it, and San Siro barely had time to sit down. Andy Diouf had done the spadework. The champions were ahead before the opening day had really started.

Then it went quiet. Monza, up from Serie B and short of bodies through injury and suspension, kept their shape and waited. On 29 minutes Gustavo Varela took a Mathis Mout pass and finished from an angle. 1-1 at the break, and the noise in the ground had changed.

Fifteen minutes, three goals

Whatever was said at half time worked immediately. Piotr Zielinski restored the lead at 48' with a chip. Pio Esposito made it 3-1 at 55', flicking in a back-heel at the near post from another Diouf delivery — the sort of finish you either try or you do not.

Yann Bisseck headed the fourth at 63', set up by Esposito. Fifteen minutes, three goals, game over. John Stones came on for Manuel Akanji at 75' for his Inter debut; Curtis Jones and Djed Spence were not available.

The underlying numbers are worth a second look before anyone declares this a statement. Inter had 70% of the ball and 628 accurate passes to Monza's 231 — but the expected goals read 1.16 to 1.09. Monza created chances. Inter simply took theirs, and Monza did not.

Match facts

• 6' — Hakan Çalhanoglu (Inter), assist Andy Diouf
• 29' — Gustavo Varela (Monza), assist Mathis Mout
• 48' — Piotr Zielinski (Inter)
• 55' — Pio Esposito (Inter), assist Andy Diouf
• 63' — Yann Bisseck (Inter), assist Pio Esposito
• 75' — John Stones on for Manuel Akanji, his Inter debut

What's next

Inter go to Cagliari on Sunday 30 August, the second away day of a season that has barely begun. Monza host Udinese on Saturday 29 August — their first home game back in Serie A, and a far better guide to what this side can actually do.

Three wins from three built the platform

That trip to Cagliari went the way this one had, in miniature. Hakan Çalhanoglu opened the scoring again from distance, this time in the ninth minute after a Nicolò Barella pass, and Inter spent the rest of the afternoon defending a single goal without adding to it. Cagliari made them work for it — Elia Caprile made a string of saves and came closest of all with an 85th-minute strike Yann Bisseck threw himself in front of — but the 1-0 held. It was the second matchday running in which Çalhanoglu had scored first from outside the box, and the second in which Inter's defence had not conceded.

Matchday 3 broke that shutout, and nearly the unbeaten run with it. Napoli, under Massimiliano Allegri, led 2-0 at San Siro by the 53rd minute through Matteo Politano and Rasmus Højlund. Inter's response took the rest of the afternoon: Lautaro Martínez pulled one back three minutes after Napoli's second goal, Marcus Thuram headed in an 82nd-minute equaliser, and Lautaro completed his brace in the first minute of stoppage time to turn a game Inter had trailed for close to an hour into a 3-2 win. Three matchdays, three wins, and the manner of each has been different — a rout, a nervy 1-0, a stoppage-time turnaround.

That run has Inter on 9 points from three games, second in the Serie A table on goal difference alone behind Roma, the only other side with a perfect record. Eight goals scored, three conceded — a tighter defensive line than the 4-1 scoreline against Monza on the opening weekend might have suggested, given three of those first-round goals came in a single 15-minute spell rather than across the match as a whole.

Monza's wait for a point went on, then ended

Monza's afternoon at San Siro turned out to be the shape of their whole opening month, not a one-off. Five days later, at home to Udinese, they twice came from behind and still lost: Jakub Piotrowski put the visitors ahead, Andrea Colpani levelled, and then two goals in first-half stoppage time — Hassane Kamara and a long-range Jürgen Ekkelenkamp strike — put the game out of reach before Gustavo Varela's second-half header made it only 3-2. A promoted side missing players to injury and suspension had now lost both its opening fixtures without ever looking outclassed.

The point finally arrived on matchday 3, away at Parma, another side still waiting for its own first result. Jay Robinson put Monza ahead before the half-hour, and Parma needed a substitute making his Serie A debut, Simone Lontani, to snatch a 1-1 draw with just over half an hour left. As the table stands after three rounds, Monza sit 17th on 1 point, still without a win, with 4 goals scored and 8 conceded — the shutout Inter kept against them on the opening weekend, folded into a wider pattern of a defence still finding its feet back in the top flight.

Put the two sides' opening months next to each other and this Monza scoreline reads differently in hindsight. The 4-1 at San Siro was not a one-off beating handed out to a side that would go on to find its level elsewhere in the table — three matchdays in, Monza have conceded eight goals in three games and are still searching for a first win, while Inter have conceded three in three and sit one point off top spot. The gap the opening weekend suggested has, if anything, widened rather than closed.