Legendary former AC Milan head coach Arrigo Sacchi feels that Inter are still the favourites to win the Serie A title even though they’ve looked low on energy due to their commitments in the Champions League.

Speaking to Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published in today’s print edition, Sacchi highlighted the fixture buildup as a reason for the Nerazzurri’s current dip in form and suggested that they can come back from it.

Inter faced perhaps their most challenging sequence of matches in February, facing major Scudetto rivals AC Milan and Napoli with Roma between them in the Coppa Italia, and then a Champions League clash with Liverpool.

The team took just a point off of their title rivals and suffered a disappointing loss in the Champions League, though they played well for the most part and will have hoped to immediately recover in their next league matches.

Instead, the Nerazzurri lost to Sassuolo and drew with Genoa in matches where they did not appear to be close to their best, which has deepened the sense that their form is not what it once was.

On what he feels the explanation for his slow-down in form is, Sacchi identified “Too many matches. They’ve played  six in twenty days.”

“Now the Nerazzurri are in a difficult moment,” he went on, “they score little, there are some players, like Brozovic or Perisic, who are not in great form. Let’s say the team is catching its breath.”

“Having said that, Genoa played a wonderful match,” he went on, adding that “it must be taken into consideration that Champions League commitments take away physical and mental energy.”

“You start thinking about a European match ten days earlier,” the former coach said, “and it wears you out. But Inter are not lacking in the experience to get past this.”

“Last season showed that this team has high technical quality and morale,” Sacchi continued. “Now it is a question of bringing these qualities out. and I’m sure that Simone Inzaghi, who has been good at managing the group so far, will be able to pull the right strings.”

“Starting with the Coppa Italia derby, of course,” he added. “For me Inter are still the big favourites for the Scudetto.”