Ligue 1 round-up: 5ième Journée

Marseille march on as Norwich falter

This weekend saw contrasting fortunes for my two clubs. Norwich can’t buy a win for love nor money as they played out a boring nil-nil draw, which included probably the worst second half I’ve ever I seen - long ball after long ball, but what else can you expect when you’re playing long ball specialists, West Ham. I will be making the long trip up to St. James Park next weekend and I’d bet my student loan that we wont be getting three points there. So the wait for three points looks set to continue for a few more weeks at least.... In stark contrast Marseille can’t stop wining as they made it five from five away at AS Nancy. Marseille were dominant for large periods as Valbuena pulled all the strings against a lacklustre Nancy side. Marseille will now be looking to make it 6 wins from 6 next weekend - the last time that happened was when Elie Baup was in charge of Bordeaux. Bordeaux went on to win the league in that same year, so the omens are good for the l’OM. 

J. Ayew grabs the winner

Lyon, PSG, Lorient and Bordeaux remain unbeaten

Marseille aren’t the only team to have made an impressive start to the campaign. Lyon have dropped just two points this season, as they ran out comfortable winners at home to Ajaccio. Bordeaux extended their unbeaten run  to 13 games as they earned a hard-fought point away at Valenciennes. But 4 draws from 5 may be slight cause for concern for les Girondins. The PSG machine looks like it has slowly rolled into motion as they produced another impressive performance to beat Toulouse 2-0 - Ibrahimovic making it 5 goals from 3 games....the least said about that the better. Lorient have been the big surprise so far this season and they moved up to third place with a 2-1 win away Rennes in an ill-tempered Breton derby that saw three red cards. But what a player they have in Alain Traoré, he now has four goals for the season, and the two he scored this weekend were world class....okay maybe not world class, but check them out below, they ain’t half bad..

Traoré with two stunning strikes

Shocks of the weekend 

I’m not sure if we can include Montpellier dropping points as a shock anymore, as they’ve only one win to their name all season. Despite their poor start you would still expect the defending champions to have got something from a game against newly promoted Reims..but no they were comprehensively beaten by a stylish Reims side. I maintain that Herrera is dreadful and after Arsenal’s 6-1 demolition of Southampton I really do fear for Montpellier in their Champions League opener against the gunners. But probably the biggest shock of the weekend was St. Etienne’s home defeat to Sochaux. Before the weekend Sochaux had failed to pick up points in all of their previous 4 fixtures and this game looked a formality on paper. But a combination of some heroic goal keeping and St. Etienne being forced to play 80 minutes of football with 10 men helped the Peugeot based club to scrape their first points of the season.

Pouplin was the hero for Sochaux

Elsewhere Lille dropped more points as they were held 1-1 at new boys Troyes and Nice continued their quiet rise up the table with a 4-2 win over Brest. And finally new Evian coach Pascal Dupraz got off to a winning start with a 3-0 win at home to Bastia 

Week 5

 Paris Saint-Germain 2 - 0 Toulouse FC 

  Stade de Reims 3 - 1 Montpellier Hérault SC 

  Valenciennes FC 0 - 0 Girondins de Bordeaux 

  OGC Nice 4 - 2 Stade Brestois 29 

 AS Saint-Etienne 0 - 1 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 

  Evian TG FC 3 - 0 SC Bastia 

  Stade Rennais FC 1 - 2 FC Lorient 

  ESTAC Troyes1 - 1 LOSC Lille Métropole 

  Olympique Lyonnais 2 - 0 AC Ajaccio 

  AS Nancy Lorraine 0 - 1 Olympique de Marseille 

Accumulator No.2

I've battled through a horrific hangover to bring the people what they what - this weeks betting accumulator. This will be very short as I don't think I can stomach looking at the computer screen for much longer. For what it is worth, here is my accumulator for the weekend:

Method in the Madness

 

So this week I've started with a home win for Corsican side Ajaccio. I know they were turned over last week by Valenciennes, but I think Corsica is a tough place for an away day and last time they played at home they held PSG to a draw. Bastia v St. Etienne is a tough one to call, so I've gone with a draw. Bastia have been in good form so far this season whereas St. Etienne have been erratic at best; opening up their season with two defeats and a 4-0 hammering of Brest. Brest will be looking to erase any memories of last weekend and I've not been impressed with Ligue 1 new boys Troyes, so home win for me in this one. Again Lorient v Nancy quite a tough one to call, but Lorient are unbeaten so far this season, so another home win for me in this one. My off the wall result is a Sochaux v Montpellier draw. Both teams have had the worst possible start to the season, and this is a must win game for both sides....which is why I think it will be a draw - neither side can afford to lose. I haven't bet on the big game of the weekend between Lille and PSG because its too hard to call. But if you can, try and watch this one. I think it will be a cracking game and great atmosphere at Lille's new stadium.

Ligue 1 round-up: 3ème Journée

 

What a weekend of football! We saw lots of goals, red cards (that’s now an astonishing 15 for the season) and best of all PSG dropping points and Marseille winning - shame the game was an absolute shocker. We will start this weekend's round-up in Paris where PSG were booed from the pitch as they failed to win yet again against Bordeaux. PSG look like a team void of ideas which seems a bizarre thing to say when you look at the quality they have. Ibrahimovic looked isolated and PSG never really looked liked troubling Bordeaux’s three centre backs. Things won’t get any easier for PSG as they travel to Lille next week in search of their first win of the season! Bordeaux however remain unbeaten and move up to fourth place.

PSG weren’t the only title hopefuls to drop points, as both Lyon and Lille were both held to draws. Lyon travelled to nearby neighbours Evian, and fell behind early in the second half to a classy Barbosa finish. But Michel Bastos was at it again, scoring a cracking free kick to rescue a point for the Lyonnais. Lille, however, will be quietly pleased with their point away at Nice, as they rested key players before their must win Champions League clash this week. Nice were very unlucky not to take all three points as they were continuously denied by the heroics of Lille keeper, Landreau. 

Check out Landreau's inspired performance and Nice's lovely team goal:

Bastos scores another cracker: 

The big clash of the weekend saw defending champions Montpellier take on Marseille at the Stade de la Mosson. Now on Sunday afternoon, after I had eaten my Sunday lunch, I had the difficult task of choosing what game to watch - Marseille or Liverpool Man City? I chose Marseille and don’t get me wrong I was thrilled with the result but my God what a boring match. I was half asleep when Gignac grabbed the winner, and that goal only came about after some incredibly poor defending from Montpellier. This was a top of the table and clash and even the commentators sounded bored....I don't know.... maybe the heat had a part to play but this was not a good advert for Ligue 1 football. What makes it worse was that at the same time I was missing out on a thrilling 2-2 draw between Liverpool and Man City. Enough said. Anyway, the good news is that Marseille are now top of the league with three wins out of three and Gignac is on fire. It looks like he's got rid of his McDonald's loyalty card and now actually looks like a footballer. I'm sure it wont be long before the Marseille fans will be singing  Feed the Gignac and he will score. Happy days for us Marseille fans. The same can't be said for Montpellier who look short on ideas and I just don’t know where they are going to get their goals from this season because Herrera is just awful.

Elsewhere, Toulouse continued their good form with a 1-0 win away at Nancy, Sissoko getting the only goal. St. Etienne finally kick started their season with an impressive home win over Brest. Aubameyang got two goals in this one and my word this boy can run. I rate him a lot and he will be pivotal to St Etienne’s season. In another game full of goals, Stade Rennais beat Bastia 3-2. This could well have been M’Vila’s last game for the club with Tottenham submitting an offer believed to be in the region of 12 million pounds for the midfielder. The two promoted sides Troyes and Reims both got off the mark this weekend. Troyes held ten men Lorient to a 2-2 draw and Reims scored a last minute winner to condemn Sochaux to their third successive defeat. And finally, Ajaccio, who played so well against PSG last week, were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by Valenciennes. 

Saint-Etienne hammer Brest 4-0:

On another note, I’m thinking of starting a petition to stop Barton from signing for Marseille. Horrible man, horrible player, don’t want him anywhere near our great club.  What do you think Marseille fans?

Barton says his heart is already in the Velodrome....I bloody hope not. 

Week 3

Paris Saint-Germain 0 - 0  Girondins de Bordeaux

Montpellier Hérault SC 0 - 1  Olympique de Marseille

AS Saint-Etienne  4 - 0  Stade Brestois 29

OGC Nice 2 - 2  LOSC Lille

Stade Rennais FC 3 - 2  SC Bastia

Stade de Reims 1 - 0  FC Sochaux-Montbéliard

Valenciennes FC 3 - 0  AC Ajaccio

AS Nancy Lorraine 0 - 1  Toulouse FC

ESTAC Troyes  2 - 2 FC Lorient 

Evian TG FC  1 - 1  Olympique Lyonnais