Ligue 1 round 30

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

It's a truncated programme this weekend in Ligue 1 as the league cup final between Bordeaux and Marseille takes centre stage on Saturday afternoon. The only league game on Saturday is at Lyon where Grenoble are the visitors and unlikely to trouble Les Gones. Cris may have given up on the title, but they're only five points off the top and can make inroads while games mount up for Bordeaux and Marseille. Besides, something has to give in the match between Montpellier and Lille, both still live challengers for the title. Get anything from this and Montpellier will go top, at least until Monday when Auxerre take on Monaco at the Louis II. Really, three points is a must for Montpellier as Bordeaux will have two games in hand by the end of the week, but it's equally vital for Lille who are in danger of being dropped by the top few. They took a battering from Liverpool and it's taking a while to get that out of their system.

It's becoming increasingly bleak for the bottom three as each week passes. Le Mans dropped to second bottom last week and have a tough home fixture with Rennes on Sunday, but there's still hope at Boulogne, buoyed by a win last time out and facing PSG in front of a hostile crowd at Parc des Princes this week. Football is secondary to what goes off on the terraces and around the ground here. St Etienne are the target for the bottom clubs to overhaul, but they have been picking points up and look good for a win this week against Lorient.

Elsewhere, Loic Remy is the latest Ligue 1 striker to piss and moan about how great it'd be to play for Arsenal. He's some way to go before he's as annoying as Marouane Chamakh, but it's clear he's better than everybody else at Nice and has been carrying them all season. They're away at Toulouse this week and there's a mid-table skirmish between Lens and Nancy with little to nothing riding on it.