It all felt inevitable, by the end, Inter becoming champions of Italy for the 21st time with a win over Parma they did not even need. A draw would have sufficed: in this game, or the next one, or either of the two after that. Their rivals for the Scudetto yielded one by one through the spring and then, finally, all at once. None of Napoli, Milan or Juventus won this weekend, not that it would have mattered any more if they had.

Inter were 10 points clear at the start of this round and 12 by its conclusion, the best team in Serie A by a mile. They have scored 82 goals in a league where no other team have yet made it to 60. Defensively, only Como can equal their 17 clean sheets.

On Sunday they gave us another snapshot of this season, dispatching a game opponent with ruthless technical superiority. Parma, 12th in the table and safe from relegation, had no obvious objectives of their own left to play for but were still fierce in the tackle and eager to strike out where they could. They almost made it to half-time before conceding.

Nicolò Barella had crashed a shot off the crossbar in the 25th minute which rebounded on to the goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, who recovered brilliantly to claw the ball off the line as Marcus Thuram raced in. A stay of execution. Just before the interval, Piotr Zielinski released Thuram through the right channel and he fired into the far corner.

Inter’s second goal was made by two substitutes, Lautaro Martínez squaring for Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Another little symbolic moment. They have won this title, in part, because their squad is the deepest. And they have done it despite lengthy injuries to key players – their captain, Martínez, chief among them.

The Argentinian is Serie A’s top scorer, yet has missed 10 starts owing to a persistent calf problem. Denzel Dumfries was out for three months and underwent ankle surgery. Hakan Calhanoglu, who has scored a goal every 183 minutes from midfield, managed only 22 league appearances.

That Inter navigated these absences without even experiencing a major wobble is a testament to many people but most of all their manager, Cristian Chivu. Few predicted such a confident first season when he was appointed to replace Simone Inzaghi last summer.

He was not Inter’s first target. The club originally pursued Cesc Fàbregas, but learned he was committed to his project at Como. Chivu was a surprising option for a team of Inter’s stature: a man who only landed his first senior management role in February 2025, taking charge of Parma for the final 13 games of the 2024-25 campaign and steering them clear of relegation.

What he had going for him was a history with, and understanding of, Inter, with whom he spent the final seven years of his playing career, winning three Serie A titles including one that formed part of a historic treble. Subsequent to that, Chivu began his coaching career by working for six years with Inter’s youth teams.

Even so, it felt like a mighty gamble. The club he returned to was emotionally shattered from pursuing the quadruple under Inzaghi last season, only to end up winning nothing at all, a story that culminated in a 5-0 humbling by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final. Worse, they would not even have time to recover, having qualified for the Club World Cup in the US that began just two weeks later.

Inter exited that tournament in the first knockout round, beaten 2-0 by Fluminense. Tensions within the squad boiled over. Calhanoglu, together with several other players carrying injuries, had been allowed to leave the team’s training base and go home to continue rehabilitation. Some gossip went around that he was negotiating a move to Galatasaray.

Martínez, who had played through his own injuries late last season, appeared to be taking a direct shot at his teammate as he vented: “You have to want to be here. We are fighting to achieve something. Anyone who doesn’t want to be here can leave.”

Ten months later, he and Calhanoglu were both still there, together on the pitch at San Siro, taking turns with their teammates to twirl the cardboard cutout of a Scudetto badge with the big number 21 in the middle. “We became more of a group this year, more of a family,” said Calhanoglu. “Thanks to the boss, Chivu, we all became closer to one another.”

Martínez made no apology for his comments last summer, but told Dazn it was all in the past. “Those words I said at the Club World Cup were things I had inside me, not something I had planned,” he said. “I say what I think, that’s how I’m wired. But today there is only happiness … we worked so hard and we did something special.”

For the players who were part of last year’s collapse, this title may feel like an overdue reward. Inter played some spectacular football under Inzaghi, developing tactics that felt genuinely innovative and ambitious. Chivu has sought evolution not revolution, retaining much of his predecessor’s approach while making tweaks around the edges: more aggression in the press and a greater willingness to be direct in possession.

There is at least an argument that Inter have got worse. Last season’s team imploded against PSG but they did beat Barcelona and Bayern Munich before that. Chivu’s Inter did not even make it to the last 16 of the Champions League, dumped out by Bodø/Glimt in the knockout phase playoff. They also lost twice to Milan, took one point in two games against Napoli and only finally beat Juventus after a controversial red card for Pierre Kalulu.

But leagues are not won and lost only in the so-called scontri diretti, the head-to-heads. Inter this season have been Italy’s persistence hunters, overcoming their adversaries simply by outlasting them. From November through to February they won 14 out of 15 games, a run interrupted only by a 2-2 draw against Napoli.

They are deserving champions who have disproved those sceptics who believed they were at the end of a cycle. This Scudetto has been won by returning players but also by fresh faces: Francesco Pio Esposito, Ange-Yoan Bonny and Petar Sucic.

It bears remembering that Inter failed to land their biggest transfer target last summer in Ademola Lookman, last summer, and managed to adjust and build a different team to the one they had envisaged with him in it. Federico Dimarco’s astonishing 17-assist season from left-back certainly helped to cover any creative deficit.

None of it has been perfect, but nothing in football ever is. The important bit, in the end, is winning, and Inter have made themselves Serie A champions three times now in six years – all under different managers. Chivu may have doubters, but he is the first Inter manager to win a Scudetto at the first attempt since José Mourinho.

He might yet make it a domestic double, with the Coppa Italia final against Lazio coming up on 13 May. Inter decided against doing their formal Scudetto celebrations until after that game. They will lift the Serie A trophy at the end of their final home game, against Verona, four days after the cup final.

Not that anyone was really holding back on Sunday night. After streamers and fireworks on the pitch at San Siro, players including Martínez, Dimarco, Thuram, Barella and Pio Esposito joined the thousands of fans who descended – as they always do – on Piazza Duomo. After coming so close but so far a year ago, they had waited quite long enough.