Welcome to Calcio Square, an email newsletter dedicated to Serie A and Italian football. I publish essays every Monday and Thursday. You can email me with feedback at hello@calciosquare.com. If you're new to the newsletter, you can sign up here.

Please note: Calcio Square is taking the week off and will be back next Monday with analysis of Italy's Nations League quarterfinal against Germany.

Now, onto today's issue.

Sunday seemed like a definitive day in the Serie A title race: Napoli's downward trend continued with a goalless draw at relegation-threatened Venezia, while Inter won an eighth consecutive game against Atalanta to move six points clear at the top of the table. Inter's 2-0 victory in Bergamo felt like a hammer blow to the chasing pack, not only because of the gap it opened but the manner in which it happened, unfolding as one-way traffic against one of the most prolific sides in Italy.

Atalanta began the day tied with Inter with a league-high 63 goals in the division but only mustered three shots on target against the Nerazzurri. Apart from Yann Sommer's great reaction save on Mario Pasalic's header, no one really troubled Inter, not even leading scorer Mateo Retegui, who flailed in Francesco Acerbi's suffocating grasp.

Acerbi was simply fantastic, marking Retegui out of the game with incredible positioning and a 90-minute commitment to old-school defending. He's 37 and still invaluable to Inter. That says more about him than it does about the team.

The win also extended Inter's superiority over Gian Piero Gasperini's Atalanta. These two teams play similar systems, but Simone Inzaghi's men are simply better at executing on set pieces and one-on-one defending. It mattered, too, because Inter had won a game against a top side, having previously drawn with and lost to Napoli, Juventus, Fiorentina, and Bologna. Their record against the current top six is up to 3-4-1, which isn't exactly inspiring stuff from would-be champions but enough because they largely do the job against everyone else.

That can't be said of Atalanta or Napoli. Atalanta may have famous wins — including an historic 4-0 thrashing of Juventus that set off an existential crisis in Turin — but not the consistency required of a potential championship team. The Bergamaschi haven't won back-to-back Serie A games since December and have recently looked overawed by the occasion. Ederson's quick-trigger sending-off for sarcastically applauding the referee preceded Gasperini's second dismissal of the season. Gasperini has been particularly combative, picking out star forward Ademola Lookman unfairly while battling seemingly every call.

Napoli have fewer excuses. They've had the benefit of playing in just one competition for the last three months — without even the distractions of the Coppa Italia, from which they were eliminated in December — and have won just once in seven games. The draws with Udinese and Venezia and loss to Como particularly hurt. Wins from those matches would've put Napoli in first place.

Everyone seems a step slower and a little more tired. Antonio Conte's team is predicated on playing brutally physical football, and the toll has been paid in dropped points. Napoli sold the one player who could make something out of nothing in such trying circumstances, and it's now up to David Neres to try and come up with the solutions.

The only thing that could stop Inter from pulling away is the schedule. Inter are still competing on two other fronts and could end up playing eight more games than their rivals. With Federico Dimarco, Piotr Zielinski, and Stefan de Vrij injured and Denzel Dumfries potentially joining them on the sidelines, Inzaghi will need every man in his roster to pull his weight.

So the title isn't theirs yet. But it will be if Atalanta and Napoli don't do something about it.