Inter Milan joined a clutch of teams level at the top of Serie A on Saturday by giving sorry Cremonese a 4-1 thumping at the San Siro thanks in large part to a superb display from Ange-Yoan Bonny.
Lautaro Martinez, Bonny, Federico Dimarco and Nicolo Barella were all on target for Inter, who movd onto 12 points alongside local rivals AC Milan, Napoli and Roma, who all play on Sunday.
On Sunday night Milan take on unbeaten Juventus who have dropped down to fifth but are a point behind the group of joint leaders.
Inter were missing France forward Marcus Thuram to a hamstring injury but that did not stop the hosts from bulldozing promoted Cremonese, as his countryman Bonny impressed with three assists to go along with a goal in his first start for his new club.
“It was great to win, we’re very consistent at the moment and if I can help the team, then that’s great too,” said Bonny, who followed coach Cristian Chivu to Inter from Parma in the summer.
“He (Chivu) gives me confidence every day. I know that if I work hard in training that I’ll get my chance. Whether we’re at Parma or Inter that’s how it is.”
Bonny was key to Inter taking the lead in the sixth minute as he slipped down the left side of the penalty area before pulling back a perfect pass for Martinez, who tapped home his sixth goal of the season.
And the 21-year-old was on hand to double his team’s lead seven minutes before the break when he nipped in at the near post to nod home Dimarco’s cross.
Bonny laid up Dimarco to lash home Inter’s third 10 minutes after half-time and shortly afterwards he slipped in a neat ball from which Barella netted his first goal since December.
– Inter on a roll –
His significant contribution helped Inter to a fifth straight win in all competitions, a run which has also included a perfect start to their Champions League campaign.
Both Bonny and academy product Pio Esposito have already offered more as back ups to Martinez and Thuram than Marko Arnautovic and Mehdi Taremi did last season.
“We dominated, we created a lot and we had some fun. We were aggressive but also well organised,” said Chivu.
“I’m pleased Bonny scored but I’m also happy about how he worked for the team. Up front we’ve got two top drawer players and two youngsters and the whole squad is happy with how they’re doing.”
Cremonese’s second visit to the San Siro in a matter of weeks could not have been more different to their first one — a shock win over Milan in the opening weekend of the season.
Davide Nicola’s team were second best from the first whistle and fell to their first defeat of the season in emphatic fashion, although Federico Bonazzoli netted a late consolation goal to go with his spectacular winner against Milan in August.
Unbeaten Atalanta are two points behind the the leading quartet in sixth after being held to a 1-1 draw by Como in the day’s late match.
Ademola Lookman made his first league start of the season but couldn’t push Atalanta to victory after Maximo Perrone pulled seventh-placed Como level with a mishit cross in the 19th minute, a fortuitous goal which cancelled out Lazar Samardzic’s early opener.
Earlier, Lazio scraped a 3-3 home draw with Torino thanks to a penalty from Danilo Cataldi in the 13th minute of stoppage time, after Saul Coco scored what looked like being a last-gasp winner for the away team.
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