Cristian Chivu did not take any additional satisfaction from beating a Como team coached by Cesc Fabregas, who was also touted as a contender for the Inter job, on Saturday.

Inter went top of Serie A, at least temporarily, with a 4-0 victory at San Siro.

Lautaro Martinez, Marcus Thuram, Hakan Calhanoglu and Carlos Augusto were on target for Chivu's side, who massively outperformed their expected goals (xG) figure of 1.24, from 11 shots.

Como actually outshot their hosts, firing off 15 attempts with an xG value of 0.95, but they suffered just their second defeat of the Serie A campaign and their first since August.

Reports suggested that Fabregas was Inter's first choice to succeed Simone Inzaghi when he left for Al-Hilal, with Chivu eventually selected, but the 45-year-old does not see the former Spain midfielder as a rival.

"This is for newspaper headlines; it is of no interest to me. I am focused on my team, what we need to do to improve," Chivu said of beating Fabregas.

"It's stuff that is good for you to write the headlines, I understand that."

Despite overseeing Inter's 10th straight league win over Como, which have come by an aggregate score of 24-2, Chivu saw room for improvement. 

"We could've done much better," Chivu told DAZN Italia. "We were perhaps a little frenetic in the first half, using up a lot of energy pressing them high. 

"It was a performance of aggression and at times quality, so we take the three points, those were the important things.

"I think the first 20 minutes were of an extraordinary level of intensity, then we tried to take a little breather at 1-0 and we could've controlled the tempo better in that period."

Fabregas, meanwhile, said he preferred to suffer a comprehensive defeat than to change his proactive, possession-based style – Como had 58.1% of the ball to Inter's 41.9% share.

"I did think about it, but my head said no. I am pleased with this. It might make me seem stupid or like a loser," Fabregas said when asked if he considered a change of shape.

"I do feel that there was growth from my team today, which doesn't happen when you win and people call you a genius. After a heavy defeat, you learn more, you appreciate everything a little bit better.

"Don't forget, Como picked up 60 points in the last 38 Serie A rounds, that's impressive! We are doing things the right way, we lost against a very strong opponent today.

"You can then approach a game defending with a 6-3-1 formation, or 5-4-1, but I prefer to lose even with this deserved result than to do that."