No matter how Simone Inzaghi twists his Rubik’s cube in the Champions League , the surfaces always show blue and black. It is the trait of a coach in complete control of his squad. Inzaghi made five changes to his starting line-up for Inter’s win against Arsenal on Wednesday.

They did not, on paper, strengthen the team. On the contrary, the side he put out on a foggy night at San Siro was the sort Inzaghi might be expected to field in the early rounds of the Coppa Italia in December. With the exception of midfielder Davide Frattesi , Inter’s national-team core was either out injured (as was the case with Erling Haaland muzzler Francesco Acerbi) or wrapped up on the bench ( Alessandro Bastoni , Federico Dimarco and Nicolo Barella).

Keeping the trio company was top scorer Marcus Thuram . Advertisement It was a big call from Inzaghi. When he played Marko Arnautovic instead of Thuram against Young Boys a fortnight ago, the Austrian missed a penalty.

Thuram then came on and scored only goal of the game in stoppage time. It brought back memories of last season’s quarter-final first leg against Atletico Madrid when Inter dominated and should have won by a far greater scoreline than 1-0. Arnautovic scored that night but only after a couple of glaring misses.

He had come on for Thuram, whose injury in the first half against Atleti, felt, in retrospect like a major turning point in the tie. Ever since then, leaving him out has been viewed as a risk. Mehdi Taremi , a free transf.