Although the attention naturally falls on the shoulders of teams like Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Real Madrid in terms of deciding the greatest team around right now, only one team sits way clear across Europe’s top five leagues.
Bayern are second in the Bundesliga, City the same in the Premier League, while Real only just went five clear of Girona in second last week.
So, are Inter Milan the bestteam in the world this season? Let’s look at the statistics.
Hands up if you start the week with 3 more points on the board 🙌#ForzaInter pic.twitter.com/lC1h2nyle7— Inter (@Inter_en) February 12, 2024
Hands up if you start the week with 3 more points on the board 🙌#ForzaInter pic.twitter.com/lC1h2nyle7
Despite losing star centre back Milan Skriniar, Inter have gone on to be the best defensive side in Europe this season with a stunning record of only 12 goals let in.
This has seen a back three mainly of Benjamin Pavard, Alessandro Bastoni and the experienced Francesco Acerbi, while Yan Sommer is arguably Serie A's best keeper this season behind them.
With Edin Dzeko moving on and Romelu Lukaku heading to Roma, Inter lost two elite strikers and forced a lot of goalscoring attention on Lautaro Martinez. The Argentine didn’t worry, however, as he is the second top scorer across Europe’s top five leagues this season, putting him ahead of Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Robert Lewandowski.
Only Kylian Mbappe’s record of 20 Ligue 1 goals is better than Martinez’s tally of 19 in 21 Serie A games, and of course, you also have to add into this equation the superior competitiveness in Italy compared to France.
Martinez is arguably the best number nine in the world as a result, and he's already within two goals from the numbers he has achieved in both of the past two seasons (21).
Martinez isn't the only one with goals this season, however, with Marcus Thuram proving to be one of the best summer signings in 2023/24 with 10 goals and seven assists so far. Hakan Çalhanoğlu is also well on his way to getting his best-ever goalscoring season with nine Serie A goals already and another in the Supercoppa Italiana and Champions League.
In total, Inter have netted a stunning tally of 55 goals in 23 Serie A games - only Bayern Munich and Manchester City have more across Europe's top five leagues.
Inter’s squad is so good that the likes of Marko Arnautovic, Alexis Sanchez and Juan Cuadrado all struggle to get game time. They also have both Dumfries and Matteo Darmian to call upon at right-back alone, while even the brilliance of Stefan de Vrij at centre back cannot get a start in most games.