There is no need for a filter because a perfect Inter creates a picture too harsh for Juventus

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While celebrating Inter’s win over Juventus on the pitch, Hakan Calhanoglu took to social media, posting a shirtless picture of himself on Instagram with the message: “We’re not done yet.” His colleague Marcus Thuram was merciless with a one-word answer: “Photoshop.”

Calhanoglu denied it, of course, but maybe he should have been fired back. No image could yet dazzle Inter fans like the pass he played in the first half of Sunday night’s game. From inside his own half and just to the right of the center circle, Calhanoglu released Federico Dimarco with a 60-yard ball that avoid the entire Juventus team. The goalkeeper crossed for Thuram to score. Instead, Bremer slid in and took the ball off the Frenchman’s toes.

Related: Internazionale leads the Serie A title race as Gatti’s own goal costs Juventus

No one could really blame Thuram. Dimarco’s center was slightly behind him and this was an exceptional tackle. However, the striker may have been slightly relieved when another Juventus player put the ball into his own net after failing to connect with another cross 10 minutes later.

This time the delivery came from Nicolò Barella on the right. Benjamin Pavard found space at the near post and attempted an acrobatic scissor kick which missed the ball completely. Thuram found Juventus’ Federico Gatti in the middle but couldn’t stoop low enough to get his header. His marker narrowly missed them both, pushing the ball past the wrong-footed Wojciech Szczesny.

A goal to end the title race? It was the only one of this game, delivering a 1-0 win for Inter who extend their lead over Juventus to four points with a game in hand. Simone Inzaghi kept his line afterwards that this game was important – “important” indeed – but with 16 games left in the season it is hardly conclusive.

It’s amazing that we ever had a title race in the first place. Inter have set a great pace, now with 57 points from 22 games. They have only succeeded once in the clubs history – in 2006-07 – the year after the Calciopoli a scandal that saw Juventus relegated to Serie B. At the corresponding point last season, Napoli’s 59 points led them by 15 in second place.

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Inter Inzaghi is brilliant from top to bottom. They were supposed to have been weakened by the summer departures of André Onana, Milan Skriniar, Marcelo Brozovic, Robin Gosens, Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku, but their replacements have strengthened them.

In goal, Yann Sommer has 14 clean sheets from 22 appearances. Thuram emerged as the perfect foil for Lautaro Martínez up front. Pavard has claimed a starting spot on the right of Inter’s back three, making him a perfect fit in Inzaghi’s quick-strike system due to his versatility. Against Juventus, he played from box to box, with Calhanoglu, Barella and right-back Matteo Darmian taking turns to fill spaces when he went forward.

Game Massimiliano Allegri Bianconeri, too, their levels are elevated. Before Sunday, they had lost just one game all season – away to Sassuolo in September. Likewise, Gatti also scored his own goal that day.

Their football was not always dazzling. From the beginning of this season until December, Juventus looked like Massimiliano Allegri’s most literal embodiment of “corto muso” mantra, the idea – borrowed from horse racing – that a “short head” at first was as good as doing so at many furlongs. Juventus won 13 of their first 18 matches but Juventus only won three by more than one goal.

However, things changed at the start of 2024. Juventus opened the year with a 6-1 defeat of Salernitana, then 4-0 against Frosinone and 3-0 against Sassuolo and Lecce. Dusan Vlahovic, a previously struggling striker, suddenly had six goals in five games leading up to the €70m plus bonuses Juventus paid to sign him from Fiorentina in January 2022. It appeared that Kenan Yildiz, the 18-year-old forward promoted from the Next Gen side, unlocked it.

It all set the stage for one of the biggest Derby of Italy fixtures in the years. But one time ago Calciopoli join these teams in a truly competitive title fight: in 2019-20, Antonio Conte’s first season as Inter manager. Juventus prevailed there, but it was the beginning of the end of their nine years in Italian football. The landscape looks very different these days, Serie A boasting a different winner in each of the last four years.

On Sunday, however, Inter showed themselves again to be in a class above. Juventus wasted just one clear goal-scoring opportunity at the San Siro, Vlahovic letting himself down with a heavy touch after Weston McKennie – playing the best football of his career after a terrible chapter at Leeds – advanced from midfield.

Only a series of brilliant last-gasp interventions prevented Inter from adding to Gatti’s own goal. After Bremer’s attack on Thuram, Szczesny followed up by denying Barella and Marko Arnautovic from point-blank range.

Inzaghi was right to say that one game in February will not seal anything. As he pointed out in the build-up, Juventus’ big advantage this season is a lighter schedule – due to their one-year suspension from European competition, a penalty for breaches of financial rules.

This was Inter’s 31st game of the season, and Juve’s 25th. Inzaghi’s side have the first of two Champions League games against Atlético Madrid coming up this month as well as an additional Serie A game, against fourth-placed Atalanta, which must be pushed back as they travel to Riyadh for the Supercoppa in January.

Friday: Lecce 3-2 Fiorentina
Saturday: Bologna 4-2 Sassuolo, Frosinone 2-3 Milan, Empoli 0-0 Genoa, Udinese 0-0 Monza
Sunday: Between 1-0 Juventus, Atalanta 3-1 Lazio, Napoli 2-1 Verona, Torino 0-0 Salernitana

Many things could still change, including injuries or suspensions at inopportune times. However, the last three weeks tell a story: Inter recorded back-to-back victories over Lazio, Napoli, Fiorentina and now Juventus without conceding a single goal.

Its CEO, Beppe Marotta, repeated a line we’ve heard from several people in recent months, saying that last season’s run to the Champions League final has given this team a confidence boost that allows them to raise their game even more.

They are playing at a level that few Italian teams have touched in recent years. After Inter’s 3-0 win over Lazio in the Supercoppa semi-final, Maurizio Sarri – manager of Serie A winners and Europa League winners, who coached in the Premier League – noted that “they move the ball at a pace I’ . I rarely saw”.

Calhanoglu was ridiculed – even by some of his own team’s fans – for saying last spring that he believed himself to be among the five best players in the world at his position. It would be hard for anyone who has paid attention in the past year to be so dismissive. No filters or Photoshop needed to show the truth that he and Inter are reaching new levels.