Inter head coach Cristian Chivu was full of praise for Francesco Pio Esposito after their Serie A victory over Parma on Saturday.

Petar Sucic, Hakan Calhanoglu and Marcus Thuram were all on target in a 3-0 win at San Siro, seeing Inter go top ahead of Roma's meeting with Como on Sunday.

Inter have won their first four home Serie A matches of a season for the third time in the three-points-per-win era (since 1994-95), following 2005-06 (under Roberto Mancini) and 2017-18 (under Luciano Spalletti).

The Nerazzurri have also reached 16 points after their first six matches of a season for the fourth time in the 2000s, following 2002-03 (16), 2017-18 (16) and 2019-20 (18).

Esposito won the penalty, which was converted by Calhanoglu, and played a key role in the build-up to Thuram's goal.

He created a joint-team-high two chances while winning 100% of his duels (3/3), and Chivu lauded the Italian's unselfishness.

"His main characteristic is generosity. Selfishness isn't part of his vocabulary," Chivu told DAZN about Esposito.

"He works for the team, he works well, he counter-presses too, he reacted, and he was able to do certain things.

"When you lose the ball and go and win it back, you've also done excellent mental work.

"He has room to improve. He's a lad who works hard and puts himself at the group's disposal, and the group sees him as someone who will give us an important hand, as he has so far."

Chivu also expressed his delight over Inter's performance after the three-week international break.

"It was an unknown after three weeks off. That had never happened before, and we didn't know how it would go. But over these weeks the lads worked well," added Chivu.

"They had enthusiasm and were keen to do certain training sessions, and those who stayed here made their contribution.

"I’m happy with the energy, the quality we showed and how quickly we adapted to the opponent, because we didn’t have much information on how they might play.

"I gave minutes to those who were behind, and I'm happy to have rested those who gave a lot for their national teams."