Inter take top spot

Elsewhere, league leaders heading into Sunday's round of matches Palermo crashed to defeat at Empoli, allowing the Nerazzuri to overtake them and claim top spot.

Roma's crushing 4-0 win over Parma pushed Palermo into third place as the Giallorossi moved into second.

At the San Siro, Inter coach Roberto Mancini was left fuming by his side's loss of concentration at the end of the match.

The Nerazzurri had been in complete control of the game, and seemed to be cruising to victory after Hernan Crespo had bagged a brace either side of goals from strikes from Walter Samuel and Dejan Stankovic.

And when Sergio Pellessier pulled one back with a penalty after 77 minutes, a comeback still appeared improbable.

But the visitors made their hosts sweat as first Simone Tiribochi, on 86 minutes, and then Matteo Brighi two minutes later, pulled the score back to 4-3 and gave Inter five minutes of concern.

Mancini was clearly upset at his side putting him through the stress of potentially losing a four goal lead, throwing his jacket off when Chievo's third went in as memories of Inter's complacency against Fiorentina earlier in the season surfaced.

"We just can't afford to do this again," Mancini said.

"We played well for 76 minutes, then we switched off. We have to be more attentive."

In truth, Inter deserved to take all three points, and had dominated the game. Crespo was particularly impressive for the Milan side, as both his goals demonstrated.

Inter were able to head into the dressing rooms one up at half time thanks to a brilliant strike from the Argentine striker. He notched his second of the season when he ran on to an Olivier Dacourt through ball, taking it over his shoulder and into his stride before firing into the bottom left hand corner of Enzo Squizzi's net.

His second was similar, but this time it was Brazilian Adriano - disappointing once again - who turned provider as Crespo ran onto his pass before screwing the ball back across Squizzi and into the far corner.

Whilst Crespo clearly knows how to find the back of the net, Adriano seems incapable at the moment. No matter for Inter though, especially when players like Stankovic can pop up and score goals of the calibre he showed on Sunday.

The Serbian let fly with a thunderbolt from 30 yards which flew into the top corner to make the score 3-0 after Samuel had headed the hosts two up on 58 minutes.

Chievo started their comeback after the referee adjudged Pellissier to have been illegally brought down by Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar with left than a quarter of an hour remaining. The striker picked himself up and slotted home from the spot.

Substitute Tiribochi gave the Flying Donkeys slight hope with a fantastic strike from outside the penalty area before Brighi set up a tense final few minutes, but it was not to be, and the champions find themselves top of the pile once again.

Palermo dropped their first points of the season and slipped to third in the table with a 2-0 reverse at Empoli.

The Sicilians could have taken the lead on 26 minutes when they were awarded a penalty, but Franco Brienza could only blaze his effort from the spot high and wide.

Empoli took advantage of the visitors' profligacy just two minutes later when Luca Saudati rose like a salmon to thump a header into the back of the net and give the Tuscans the lead.

Brienza tried to make amends for his error, but Empoli 'keeper Daniele Balli was equal to everything he and his Sicilian team-mates threw at him.

Sergio Almiron sealed the win for Empoli on 54 minutes with a great individual strike after he burst into the box to fire home.

Roma leapfrogged Palermo into second place with a 4-0 demolition job on struggling Parma.

Vincenzo Montella started the rout after just five minutes when he latched on to a long ball over the top to finish well past Alfonso De Lucia in the Parma goal.

Then, right on the stroke of half time, Daniele De Rossi brilliantly won the ball in midfield before sending a perfectly weighted ball through to Simone Perrotta, who kept his cool to slot home for the second.

Aleandro Rosi neatly volleyed home after a penalty area scramble in the 54th minute to notch his first Serie A goal before Alberto Aquilani completed the scoring at the death.

Empoli's chances were few and far between, the best of a bad bunch falling to Igor Budan, who dragged his shot just wide of the post.

Parma now find themselves just above the relegation zone, but the Gialloblu are the lowest placed team who were not penalised with a points deduction before the season started.

In Ascoli, it was very much a story of two Delvecchios.

Marco gave the home side the lead after 16 minutes with a header, before Gennaro levelled for Sampdoria with another header from close range on 66 minutes.

The point was just Samp's third of the season, in a campaign which has failed so far to live up to pre-season expectations, whilst Ascoli are faring little better, stuck in 14th place.

Newly promoted Torino fought back to claim their second point of the season with a 1-1 draw against Reggina at the Stadio Orneste Granillo, Gianluca Comotto scrambling an equaliser to Francesco Modesto's headed opener.

A Sebastiano Siviglia strike was enough to give Lazio all three points against Atalanta at the Stadio Olimpico and, rounding off the day's action, Siena played out a goalless draw with Cagliari.

Struggling Fiorentina play at Udinese in the late kick off on Sunday.