Ligue 1 round 20

Monaco 4-0 Montpellier
Boulogne 0-0 Sochaux

We had two catch-up games while the league was on hiatus that almost - almost - leaves us with an even table. Boulogne and Sochaux battled to a fairly uninteresting goalless draw that helps neither side do much, but Montpellier suffered a huge setback with a thumping defeat at Stade Louis II that was capped by Abdelhamid El Kaoutari putting the final goal through his own net three minutes from time, that coming after Monaco had already put three of their own away and Montpellier had Younes Belhanda sent off for a second bookable offence. A night to forget for 2009's surprise package. Everyone has now played 19 games bar Marseille and Sochaux as the league resumes for real this weekend and it does do with these fixtures:

Le Mans v Lorient
Monaco v Sochaux
Grenoble v St Etienne
Rennes v Lens
Lille v PSG
Nancy v Lyon
Valenciennes v Toulouse
Montpellier v Nice
Auxerre v Boulogne
Bordeaux v Marseille

Top game this week sees runaway leaders Bordeaux at home to fourth placed Marseille. Girondins lost their cup game in midweek to the snow that's affected much of Europe, much to the chagrin of Laurent Blanc who lost two days preparation for this big clash. Marseille won through in the cup away at St Etienne, but like many sides in Ligue 1 are without a host of players to the Africa Cup of Nations - Taye Taiwo and Bakari Koné for two. It's 38 years since Marseille went to Bordeaux and won and it's difficult to make a case for them to break that sequence, despite Blanc's protestations that his side are short of match practice.

Lille went second just before the shutdown after a stunning run of form that saw them hit goals for fun. One of the main sources of those goals, finishing and creating, is the Ivorian striker Gervinho. Guess where he'll be this weekend? Not freezing his nadgers off in northern France, that's for sure, where PSG make the short journey across to Stade Metropole for a local derby. Not that PSG are in great shape, dumped out of the cup by Ligue 2 Guingamp. Even without their Ivorian talisman, Lille can heap more misery on their neighbours here. Montpellier have an ideal chance to bounce back from that tubbing in the Principality at home to Nice in something of a south coast derby while Auxerre, in fifth, have Boulogne at home - a game they really should be winning if they've any pretence of maintaining a push for European football or, indeed, the title.

Le Mans haven't just got players away in Angola, but also coach Paolo Duarté, also head coach of Burkina Faso who somehow earned a 0-0 draw against Ivory Coast despite being outgunned to the tune of 22 shots on goal to.. err.. one. Some of that defensive tenacity wouldn't go amiss up Orléans way as they shape up for a local derby with Lorient. Monaco aren't completely out of it and are at home to Sochaux and neither are Valenciennes - at home to the most frustratingly inconsistent side in Europe, Toulouse.

For Lyon, in this century at least, a crisis involves not winning the title. It looks highly unlikely they'll do it this year with all sorts of rumblings in the camp. They had to rely on a Jeremy Toulalan goal - Methuselah was still in short trousers the last time that happened - to keep them in the cup in midweek. Nancy are in freefall and they host Les Gones this week. Just down the road from Lyon are their big rivals St Etienne who start 2010 in the bottom three. They start with a home game against rock bottom Grenoble. It took the Alpine club so long to get going, but they were picking up the odd point here and there before the break and lie eight points behind Les Verts. If St Etienne win this one, then that last bit of light that Grenoble can see will probably turn out to be the light of an oncoming train.