Holding pattern

Marseille 2-0 Le Havre
Lorient 1-1 Valenciennes
St Etienne 1-1 Le Mans
Grenoble 0-2 Lyon
Nice 2-0 Auxerre
Toulouse 3-0 Nancy
Nantes 1-2 Bordeaux
PSG 2-1 Sochaux
Caen 2-2 Monaco
Lille 1-0 Rennes

It was that man Yoann Gourcuff again that grabbed the headlines, this time with his scoring of a header that gave Bordeaux the lead up the coast in Nantes. And so it looked like remaining until late on when Mohamed Chamakh rose above the Nantes defence to nod his side into a 2-0 lead. Filip Djordjevic's late goal was mere consolation. Lyon won comfortably, Ederson and César Delgado relieving a bit of the pressure that was beggining to mount on Claude Puel. Marseille were also comfortable winners at home to struggling Le Havre; Mathieu Valbuena and Ronald Zubar scoring in a routine win. Sochaux gave PSG a scare. Guillaume Hoarau's penalty put the Paul Le Guen's men in front, but Vaclav Sverkos hit right back and it took Pegguy Luyindula to snatch it, this coming after he'd missed an open goal very much in the Chris Iwelumo style.

Toulouse also won easily which means that Rennes were the only one of the front runners to lose this week. They couldn't have done much more to ensure this result as they scored Lille's goal - Petter Hansson getting the vital touch on Nicolas Fauverge's shot - and Bruno Cheyrou seeing red in the final minute. While it's a setback for Rennes, it puts Lille back in the hunt. At the bottom, Le Havre are pretty much screwed already while St Etienne keep picking up the points that allow them to keep their heads above water. Realistically, it looks like three from five at this stage, but the likes of Monaco, Nantes and Caen need to start stringing some wins together.

The table:
1 Lyon 21 42
2 Bordeaux 21 41
3 Marseille 21 38
4 Rennes 21 37
5 Toulouse 21 37
6 PSG 21 36
7 Lille 20 35
8 Nice 20 33
9 Lorient 21 28
10 Nancy 20 25
11 Le Mans 72 20 25
12 Grenoble 21 25
13 Caen 20 24
14 Monaco 21 24
15 Nantes 21 23
16 Auxerre 21 20
17 St Etienne 21 20
18 Sochaux 21 17
19 Valenciennes 20 16
20 Le Havre 21 12

Open wide

All fun and games in Ligue 1. Once the sole preserve of Lyon, they've been dropping points at will this season, the latest being a home draw against mid-table Lorient. However, nobody else has managed a sustained challenge to put themselves in the frame to break the Lyonnais monopoly. Rennes have been the surprise packet, losing just once but managing ten draws already. Marseille are marvellously inconsistent and PSG win a lot, but lose a lot as well. Instead, it's Larry White's Bordeaux who procide the main challenge. Just before the christmas break, they managed to turn round a 3-0 deficit away at Monaco into a late, late 4-3 win and in the first game of the new year, battered PSG 4-0. And the guy making it all happen isn't even their player. They have a €15m option to relieve AC Milan of the services of Yoann Gourcuff, and the available evidence suggests they really ought to.
His free-kick created their first and the skill for his goal - Bordeaux's third - comes pretty close on it's own to justify those "new Zinedine Zidane" claims. So many have been labelled such in the past - it's the French football equivalent of labelling an English cricketer 'the new Ian Botham' - and such luminaries as Bruno Cheyrou have suffered under the weight. And it looked like Yoann would suffer also. Since leaving Milan for Bordeaux, he's flourished and it's been his performances for the national side that's keeping Raymond Domenech in a job. Whether that's a good thing or not is a different matter. If he stays fit, Bordeaux have a very real chance of taking the trophy away from the Gerland for the first time since Noah was a lad.

It's league cup quarter-finals this week, with PSG travelling to RC Lens in a repeat of last season's final. Lens got relegated, but are storming the second division and will be tough opponents. Both sides have appealed for calm among their supporters. Good luck with that. Bordeaux have a home game against second division Châteauroux in a game that looks to have just the one outcome. Yesterday, Vannes beat Metz on penalties after a 1-1 draw in an all division 2 clash despite going a man down in extra time. And Nice beat Le Havre in the other game. No surprises there with Nice looking for European football and Le Havre bottom of the pile.