Inter go clear at top

The result - Roma's first defeat of the season so far - lifted Inter into pole position in Serie A after six games after did much to ease memories of the Nerazzurri's 1-0 defeat in the traditional curtain raiser to the new season.

Roma played for much of the game with ten men after Ludovic Giuly received his marching orders for deliberate handball on 28 minutes and Luciano Spalletti's side were made to pay a hefty price for the Frenchman's indiscretion as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hernan Crespo, Julio Cruz and Ivan Cordoba all netted.

Simone Perrotta briefly gave the hosts hope at 1-1, but three goals in a blistering 11 minute spell in the second half put paid to any Roman aspirations of getting something from the game.

Ironically, Roma were the quicker out of the blocks of the two sides, the returning Francesco Totti forcing Inter keeper Julio Cesar into action with a well struck free kick as early as the second minute of the match. Cesar could only parry the ball into Mancini's path, but the Brazilian recovered in time to block his compatriot's close range follow-up.

Mancini then tested Cesar again with a turn and shot from distance which the Nerazzurri keeper was forced into turning round the corner.

But the sending off incident just before the half hour mark entirely changed the complex of the game, as Roma suffered a double whammy - losing a man and going a goal down.

Roma's misfortune stemmed from - say it quietly in Rome - an error from Totti. The Giallorossi's talismanic captain can normally do no wrong, but this time he played a short corner which was telegraphed all too easily by Javier Zanetti.

The Inter midfielder burst forward before playing in Cesar, whose shot was well blocked by Doni in the Roma net. But the ball spooned straight out to Ibrahimovic whose goalbound header was then saved by the hands of the backtracking Giuly.

A red card was inevitable, as was the subsequent award of a penalty kick, which Ibrahimovic duly slotted home with his seventh of the season to bring some kind of justice to the incident.

Roma struggled to trouble Cesar again for the remainder of the opening period as Inter began to assert their one-man advantage and the hosts were restricted to hitting Inter on the break, something which they were rarely given the opportunity to do.

But on one of the few occasions they did manage to break out, Perrotta gave Roma hope with a cool finish after Maxwell was caught in possession on the edge of the box by David Pizarro.

That hope lasted exactly four minutes, as Crespo - only on the pitch a matter of minutes - volleyed home a parried Esteban Cambiasso shot back past Doni.

The Argentine had been introduced at the same time as Julio Cruz, who himself could have netted with his first touch, but his crisp strike cannoned back off the base of an upright on 55 minutes.

Cruz was to find the back of the net shortly after though, as his low drive from 25 yards beat Doni at his near post.

That was three for Inter, and it seemed to completely knock the stuffing out of Roma, who then conceded a fourth on 68 minutes, Cordoba rising to meet a Luis Figo cross with his head and plant the ball past Doni.

Totti was eventually replaced with a quarter of an hour remaining - with one eye on next week's Champions League trip to Manchester United - but the damage could already have been done to Spalletti's misfiring side, who have now gone three games without a win.

In Saturday's other Serie A match, Fiorentina moved up to second after extending their unbeaten start to the season to six games against struggling Livorno.

Pablo Osvaldo bagged a brace either side of half-time and Mario Santana rounded off a comprehensive win to leave the home side still searching for their first victory, while Livorno's misery was compounded by a red card for Massimo Loviso.