Hakan Calhanoglu, former Roma forward Edin Dzeko, and Denzel Dumfries all scored in the first half for the champions - as a Mourinho side trailed 3-0 at the break for the first time in his coaching career.

Mourinho answered only one question from journalists in his news conference.

"I apologise again for not responding to other questions. I'm just going to say what I think," Mourinho said.

"Inter is better than us on a good day, they finished with 29 points more than us last year and also this year they're better.

"On a good day it would have been a difficult match, but today it was even harder because of absentees."

Inter are second in Serie A, a point behind AC Milan after the Rossoneri beat Salernitana 2-0 to move to the top of the league.

Napoli are third after they lost 3-2 at home to fourth-placed Atalanta, who are just two points adrift of the former leaders.

Roma remained fifth but are 13 points adrift of Milan.

Mourinho, who steered Inter to the treble of Serie A, Italian Cup and Champions League success in 2010, took over at Roma in the off-season but has had mixed results, with the Giallorrosi losing four of their past six league matches.

Inter opened the scoring when Calhanoglu curled in directly from the corner flag.

The lead was doubled in the 24th minute when Calhanoglu cut inside from the left and pulled the ball back for Dzeko to sweep into the top left corner.

The Nerazzurri had the result virtually wrapped up by halftime when Alessandro Bastoni whipped in a cross from the left for a diving header from Dumfries at the back post.

Milan dominated against bottom-placed Salernitana but lost another player to injury.

After key Rossoneri defender Simon Kjaer was ruled out for the rest of the season during the week, forward Pietro Pellegri came off early against Salernitana.

Milan were already 1-0 up by that point after Franck Kessie fired home from a Rafael Leao cutback in the fifth minute.

Alexis Saelemaekers doubled Milan's lead in the 18th with a powerful strike.

Two goals in the space of five minutes proved decisive for Aalanta in their comeback win in Naples.

Ruslan Malinovskyi gave Atalanta an early lead but goals either side of halftime from Piotr Zielinski and Dries Mertens put Napoli ahead.

However, Merih Demiral fired Atalanta level in the 66th minute and Remo Freuler netted what was to prove the winner shortly after.

Australian Associated Press