MILAN - Internazionale ended a turbulent week on a high by restoring their six-point advantage at the top of Serie A with a hard-fought defeat of Palermo at the San Siro.
The win against the Sicilians will help smooth over some of the turmoil which has enveloped Inter over the past few days.
On Tuesday, they went out of the Champions League after losing to Liverpool with coach Roberto Mancini announcing immediately after the game his intention to quit at the end of the season.
Following talks with president Massimo Moratti, Mancini performed a U-turn on Wednesday, opting to stay in the hot-seat, and the fillip provided by his decision seemed to spur the home side on in the early stages.
Patrick Vieira put Inter ahead in the fifth minute only for an own goal from Marco Materazzi 20 minutes later to give the visitors hope.
Luis Jimenez grabbed what turned out to be the winner 10 minutes before half-time.
Vieira's season has been disrupted by injury but the France midfielder showed a glimpse of his ability by starting and finishing the move which led to the opening goal.
He gave the ball to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and continued his run into the penalty area to meet the Swede's return pass and flick a header over Alberto Fontana from 10 yards.
Palermo finally made inroads into the Inter penalty area and their first shot on target almost resulted in the equaliser with home keeper Julio Cesar needing two attempts to keep out Leandro Rinaudo's flick.
But Inter almost doubled their lead when Vieira nearly scored his second with a free-header from the penalty spot which he placed just wide of Fontana's left-hand post.
The Rosanero were playing on the break and they found themselves level in rather fortuitous circumstances.
Fabrizio Miccoli's strike from 20 yards was fumbled by Julio Cesar to Fabio Simplicio, whose instinctive shot clattered off the Inter goalkeeper and then Materazzi before rolling into the empty net.
The home side were undeterred and were soon back on the attack looking for a second.
It was Vieira again who came close to finding it in the 27th minute when his shot from 20 yards cannoned back off the underside of the crossbar.
Jimenez followed in to head the rebound home, but he was in an offside position when Vieira shot and the goal was rightly disallowed.
Jimenez was able to celebrate a legitimate goal 10 minutes before the break to finally break Palermo's resistance and put the home side back ahead.
Maicon found himself in unfamiliar territory inside the Palermo penalty area, but he kept his wits to find Jimenez, whose first touch took Rinaudo out of the equation and his second was a placed shot into the bottom corner.
Palermo coach Francesco Guidolin reacted by bringing Bosko Jankovic on for Miccoli and his side made a much-improved start to the second half.
For all their possession, they were unable to really put Julio Cesar under any pressure and Inter weathered the storm before creating chances to double their lead.
Ibrahimovic and Julio Cruz both went close before Jankovic missed a glorious chance to level late on for Palermo.
