How the style icons of Europe are dressing

You know us here at Euroballs. We've long been recognised in our field as purveyors of fine fashion, our field populated only by us and a few raggedy scarecrows of course. Anyway, here's our run through of the top designs adorning the torsos of Europe's footballers.

A surprise pick for our first entry, the Arles away kit. A dusty, almost pastel pink number with a broad, grey stripe down the middle doesn't sounds appealing, but they've pulled it off. Mated with grey shorts and socks of the same shade as that stripe, they blew Sochaux off the park in the style stakes in round of Ligue 1 if not on the scoreboard. Mind, when it comes to zany clobber, Arles have previous.

Lyon switched from Umbro to adidas for this season and boy oh boy have they gone to town. The home shirt has the traditional stripes at a nice jaunty angle with lion motifs down them, but it's the change strip that really catches the eye. What is the French for avant garde anyway? The third kit looks more like something straight off the back of a Tour de France rider, but is none the worse for that.

In fact, we'd go so far as to say that Lyon are going to be the most elegant side on the continent this season, but that would be to overlook the fashion capital that is the industrial north of Germany, Hamburg in fact, home of St Pauli. It's their centenary as well as the first time back in the top flight since 2001 and they've gone to town. The change kit is one thing, an elegant white number with old school collar, but it's the alternative that really catches the eye. It's reversible with an interesting copper colour on one side and an intricate design on the reverse featuring scenes from down the years. It's out there, it's ambitious, but it works. Truly a work of art.

Toulouse don't vary much from the traditional lilac and white stripes, but it's a classic and you don't tinker with it. Airness are a new company to us, but it's no doubt the very height of science with some sort of sweat-be-gone technology. Still stylish though.

Our final pick comes from the Eredivisie which isn't something you'd expect to hear. After all, it's pretty much a monotone league. Twente: red. AZ, Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV, Utrecht: red and white. However, Utrecht have gone out on a limb with an orange and black change kit. Tasty.

Supporters of these clubs can be happy they're quite the dandies. The rest of you: well it's either a change of allegiance you need or a strongly-worded e-mail to your club to tell them to buck their ideas up.

Ligue 1 week 23: fin de siécle?

Saturday:
Nantes v PSG
Lorient v Monaco
St Etienne v Caen
Nancy v Auxerre
Le Havre v Rennes
Toulouse v Le Mans
Lille v Sochaux
Sunday:
Nice v Lyon
Grenoble v Valenciennes
Marseille v Bordeaux

Is the empire crumbling? Lyon, reigning seven time champions, are under fire from all quarters. After St Etienne were denied a penalty that has been described by people other than me as debatable - I saw no foul - all comers have been chipping in their two cents. Lyon defended themselves from St Etienne boss Alain Perrin's chelping about the incident by recalling an interview Perrin gave to OLTV last year when he was the Lyon boss in which he said he was annoyed by referees being more "laid-back" with less strong teams. "This habit of crying wolf is annoying" said Marseille president Pape Diouf, before invoking the memory of 1982 and Harald Schumacher's assault on Patrick Battiston in relation to Lyon keeper Hugo Lloris' breaking the cheekbone of Bakari Kone. That's like invoking the Holocaust in an argument round those parts, especially as Lloris did little wrong in what was clearly a accidental collision. No matter. This week Lyon have a winnable game at Nice, though it is never easy travelling to the south coast where the fans make for an intimidating atmosphere. Should they slip up, Bordeaux, 3-0 winners over PSG in the league cup in midweek, will go top by beating Marseille at the Vélodrome. That's not easy in itself, but with Bordeaux in sublime form and Marseille consistently inconsistent, there's every chance they will.

PSG travel to Nantes in what promises to be a tight game. Mateja Kezman has already unmade friends at the capital club - he really could start a fight in a phone booth - after hurling his shirt away having been subbed in that defeat to Bordeaux, shortly after missing a glorious chance. He's likely to face internal punishment and will probably miss this one, but whether that blunts their attack is a matter of opinion. Toulouse host Le Mans with the latter on the slide and Toulouse going well. Le Mans changed coach in the week with Yves Bertucchi stepping down in favour of Daniel Jeandupeux. It's a desperate move, especially when you consider that Bertucci will still be Jeandupeux's deputy. Toulouse were poor last week, but they have goals in them - André-Pierre Gignac is on 13 for the season - and should win here. Rennes, meanwhile, travel to Le Havre where they will win. Le Havre are terrible.

Lorient host Monaco hoping to turn round their form in the chase for a European spot and they are favourites to do so. Monaco have seven absentees and doubts over more. Caen are plummeting down the league and they travel to face St Etienne. Caen rely on the goals of Steve Savidan, but it's been some time since his goals gave Caen an good start and earned him a call-up to the national side, and they're now deep in trouble. There's a proverbial six-pointer at Grenoble, also on the slide, where resurgent Valenciennes are the visitors. A win for Valenciennes should surely pull them out of the bottom three for the first time this season. Sochaux are one of the sides immediately above them and they face Lille who they will find the going tough against and Auxerre are also in trouble and they go to Nancy who are languishing in mid-table obscurity. If Auxerre are to get out of it, then this is the sort of game they need to win. We don't think they will.

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.