Ligue 1 round 22

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

It's been a bad week for Lyon. And that's coming in the middle of what, for them, is a bad year. A week ago, they were dumped out of the Coupe de France in Monaco and that was followed by defeat to Lorient in the quarter-finals of the League Cup. Moreover, they're eleven points off the top of the league. By the standards set at Stade Gerland in the last decade, this is a crisis. And yet they're still only three points away from second place and an automatic Champions League place. And they can take a big step towards that with a win over similarly embattled PSG. The Parisians were already out of the League Cup, beaten by Ligue 2 Guingamp, but won through at home to Evian in the Coupe de France last week. A loss there and Antoine Kombouaré would probably have gone. He remains, albeit under growing pressure. A loss for either here and a managerial change cannot be far away.

Bordeaux roll serenely on in all three domestic competitions with Laurent Blanc stating the bleeding obvious by saying his side are in good shape to take all three. Only a bizarre loss of form by a good number of his squad can stop him. Nobody in this league can hold a candle to his runaway league leaders. Especially not Boulogne, probably the worst side in the major European leagues on current form. Montpellier have lasted longer at the top than pretty much everybody thought they would and remain the nearest challegers to Les Girondins. They have a real tough test for the this week, a home game against Marseille. Win it, and the south coast club can start having a look around the other leagues for potential Champions League opponents. Lose it and everything's back on. For their part, Marseille can't really afford to lose it for fear of being cut adrift. Lille's terrific run ended last week, but they'll have Gervinho back in the reckoning for a local derby against Lens. There's a derby of sorts at the other end of the country where Nice make the short trip to Monaco. The Monagasques are shedding a bunch of players with Frederic Nimani and Eidur Gudjohnsen both off on loan to the Premier League in England. Auxerre are still in with a shout and Ireneusz Jelen came back from his latest injury to bag a winner in the cup a week ago. They face St Etienne this week who gave themselves a bit of breathing space, opening up a four-point gap back to the bottom three.

Le Mans are that side four points behind and they face Toulouse at home this week. TFC are impossible to read. They don't look a great side, but they're way too good to be in any sort of trouble, but they're equally capable of losing to a side like Le Mans who won't give them any space. Grenoble's pitiful campaign continues up north at Rennes. Elsewhere, Lorient go to Nancy and Valenciennes have a visit from Sochaux in a couple of mid-table clashes.