The stage was set for a spectacle. A full house at the Allianz Stadium and the atmosphere crackling as Juventus fans put on their usual pre-game choreography: a sea of black and white placards broken only by a green, white and red tricolore to remind everyone this is where the reigning champions reside.

Well, no, actually, that wouldn’t quite do it. Ultras also prepared their own banner, in which 1970s cartoon detective Nick Carter was seen, together with sidekicks Patsy and Ten, examining a map of Europe. Italy had been blocked out in black and white stripes. Above the picture was a message aimed at Inter’s owners: “The wise man says, ‘China is close, Italy is a mirage’.”

Inevitable jibes aside, there was nervousness among the home fans as well. They might not like to admit it in Turin but, for the first time in a long time, Inter are a genuine threat. Only four games shy of the season’s midway stage, indeed, the Nerazzurri were top.

They arrived unbeaten, and with fresh legs, too, on account of not playing in European competition. Mauro Icardi, a man who has enjoyed success against Juventus in the past, was top of the scoring charts. The newspapers sought to bill this occasion as a duel between him and Gonzalo Higuaín. Icardi has moved ahead of his compatriot in the running to represent Argentina at the World Cup. Gazzetta dello Sport surveyed 100 strikers, past and present, and found a slender majority favoured the Inter striker.

What the pink paper forgot to ask was: ‘Will either of them actually see the ball?’ As it turned out, they basically wouldn’t. The 232nd Derby d’Italia proved to be a tense game, compelling for its tension and fine margins, but not exactly packed with goalmouth action.

Internazionale hold Juventus to goalless draw and stay top of Serie A Read more

The real duel was not between strikers but managers. Luciano Spalletti has elevated Inter far beyond expectations, pushing the likes of Ivan Perisic, Antonio Candreva and Danilo D’Ambrosio to a higher standard of individual performance while also implementing a tactical system that works. His 4-2-3-1 privileges those wide players but leaves room for Borja Valero or Marcelo Brozovic to pull strings behind the attack without losing a defensive shield.

Massimiliano Allegri, by contrast, has always been adapatable: a pragmatist. He was chided by Arrigo Sacchi last week, the former Milan manager contending the Bianconeri’s defensive approach in their 1-0 win at Napoli would not have been celebrated in Spain.

Allegri is not a man who concedes easily to the opinions of others. He can point to last season’s team, when he combined Higuaín, Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic, Juan Cuadrado and Miralem Pjanic (not to mention Dani Alves as a rampaging full-back) into a ‘five-star Juve’ as evidence of his willingness to play an attacking game. In the end, he is most interested in winning. And that is why he approached the Inter game just as he had the one against Napoli: with a firm intention not to concede. Dybala, whose performances have dipped following a brilliant start, began on the bench – as did an out-of-form, and reportedly unsettled, Alex Sandro.

Just as they had at the Stadio San Paolo, Juventus began sitting back and allowing their opponents the ball. They were inviting Inter to commit men forward and leave spaces open for a counterattack in behind. But there was nuance, too. Allegri had packed the middle of the park against Napoli, betting their diminutive forward line would struggle if they were reduced to pumping crosses into the box. Against Inter, the team who cross the ball the most in all of Serie A (25 times per game), he made sure Perisic and Candreva were denied space out wide.

The plan worked perfectly. Inter barely had a sniff of goal in 90 minutes, where Juventus should have scored several. Cuadrado’s crosses repeatedly found Mandzukic but the Croatian could not force the ball in. Samir Handanovic denied him with a fine save, then he rattled a header off the crossbar. Mandzukic then miscontrolled another opportunity with the goal at his mercy.

By full-time, he had taken as many shots as Inter’s team. But the game still ended 0-0, a result for the visitors to celebrate. Inter are the only team in Europe’s top competitions yet to taste defeat this season – if you factor in Manchester City’s loss to Shakhtar Donetsk and Barcelona’s slip in the Spanish Super Cup.

Inter would even get to stay in first, after Napoli drew with Fiorentina a day later. Officially, players continue to insist they are not thinking about the Scudetto and that qualifying for the Champions League is the real target. But Inter have survived away trips to Juventus, Napoli and Roma. Those teams must all come to San Siro in the second half of this campaign.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Giorgio Chiellini fights for the ball with Inter defender Milan Skriniar. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

The suggestion this was a disastrous result for Juventus, though, ought to be quickly dismissed. This was the conclusion of a daunting week, beginning with the visit to Naples and proceeding through a trip to Greece, where they had to beat Olympiakos (and did) to be sure of qualifying for the Champions League last 16 (where Spurs await).

To win all of those games would have been ideal but to portray two dropped points as a calamity might be wishful thinking. “You all want us to start losing so you can see a new team on top after six years,” Pjanic said. “That’s normal. But we’re going to carry on battling.” And while people such as Sacchi can criticise a lack of attacking ambition, we ought not ignore the fact this was Juventus’s fifth consecutive clean sheet. In that stretch they have not only faced Napoli and Inter but Barcelona as well.

Yes, Allegri still needs to work out how to get Dybala going again. After a late cameo at the weekend, the Argentinian has gone from scoring 12 in his first eight games to only two in his last 15.

It is the team with the stingiest defence, however, who have won Serie A in every one of the past 10 seasons. And that might be the biggest reason why this Inter team – with four fewer goals conceded than Juventus – are starting to cause a little anxiety in Turin.

Talking points

• It was a weekend for 0-0 draws at the top of Serie A, but you can leave aside your tired clichés about Italian football. This is, according to Opta, the first time in more than 50 years that Juventus, Inter, Napoli and Roma have played out goalless matches in the same round.

• Roma, to be fair, were also very unlucky to run into Stefano Sorrentino on a day when the Chievo goalkeeper was not going to be beaten. His double save from Patrik Schick and Gerson was brilliant, but the body control required to keep out a deflected shot with his boot in the second-half was even better. There were plenty more besides those. Not bad for a man who turns 38 next month.

• And what of Napoli? Maurizio Sarri insisted his team was not fatigued after they drew at home to Fiorentina, missing their chance to vault back into first. Certainly it is true they came on stronger in the second half, when Dries Mertens fluffed a one-on-one and Marco Sportiello did well to push Piotr Zielinski’s shot on to the post. It is undeniable, and unsurprising, that Napoli were missing their usual verve down the left with Faouzi Ghoulam and Lorenzo Insigne absent, but the contrast between their early-season form and recent results is stark. Napoli scored 32 in their first 11 games, and have done so just three times in the last five.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marco Sportiello snaffles the ball in front of a frustrated Dries Mertens. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

• Milan won their first home game since September, and celebrated as enthusiastically as Benevento had done after drawing with the Rossoneri last week. The jury is still out on whether Rino Gattuso is cut out to lead, but if nothing else you do get the sense his enthusiasm is getting into his players and staff, whom he made a point of hugging one-by-one before bringing together an on-pitch huddle. There was a similar energy from Milan during the game, as they rained in 21 shots on Bologna’s goal.

• That said, another former Milan man has been making an even better impression in the dugout. Massimo Oddo took over at Udinese in mid-November, and lost his first game against Napoli. Since then he has led the team to three wins by a combined margin of 13-3 (the biggest of those, admittedly, coming against Serie B side Perugia in the Coppa Italia).

Results: Cagliari 2-2 Sampdoria, Juventus 0-0 Internazionale, Chievo 0-0 Roma, Napoli 0-0 Fiorentina, Spal 2-2 Verona, Udinese 2-0 Benevento, Sassuolo 2-1 Crotone, Milan 2-1 Bologna.