Italian journalist Paolo Condo feels that up to this point in the season, Inter’s weakness has been their failure to get results against direct rivals.

Writing in his column in today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper La Repubblica, the journalist noted that the Nerazzurri have not struggled against lesser opposition, but that against teams from the top end of the table they’ve gotten no points.

Consistently beating weaker opposition is as important in competing for top four and the Scudetto as the head-to-head clashes are purely numerically, but there is little doubt that performances against top rivals can be what make the difference.

In this respect the Nerazzurri’s season so far has been a miserable failure so far, at least in the league, although they have beaten Barcelona in Europe.

Losses to all of Lazio, AC Milan, Udinese, and Roma suggest that Inter are still some way off of being able to compete in the tougher matches consistently.

“Several themes emerge from interpreting the head-to-head clashes,” Condo writes, “Inter lost all four of them, setting an incredibly clear boundary clear between the ‘strong’ teams where they don’t have a point, and the ‘weak’ ones who they give no chance to, winning five from five.”