Une Vue à Ligue 1: Week 1

Une Vue à Ligue 1: Looking this week at Ligue 1

By Ed Pham

This weekend marks the start of the 2016-2017 season for Ligue 1. There’s a lot of changes for the French first division. No longer is Zlatan Ibrahimovic playing in France, which should be a relief for some teams. Dijon makes their first division debut, while Nancy and Metz make their return. Here’s what you should be keeping an eye out on this weekend and this upcoming week.

Old Faces at New Places in France

Plenty of players have moved over the course of the summer, whether between clubs or back into Ligue 1 from other leagues. Probably one of the biggest moves of the season was Paris Saint-Germain signing Hatem Ben Arfa from OGN Nice after a strong performance in 2015-2016. They’ll need him to fill Zlatan’s scoring boots.

There were other familiar names on the move. Marseille picked up several familiar faces to Ligue 1 for the upcoming season. Florent Thauvin returns again to the Stade Velodrome (on loan from Newcastle United), as well as former Lyon players Bafétimbi Gomis (on loan from Swansea) and Henri Bedimo. Lyon picked up defender Nicolas Nkoulou from OM, hoping that he can replicate his form from two seasons ago and rather than last season. Falcao returns to Monaco after an injury-ridden campaign in England. Jeremy Menez came back to France, joining Bordeaux along with Jeremy Toulalan (from AS Monaco).

There were plenty more transfers this summer that we can list. It’ll be interesting to see which players make an impact for their respective clubs this weekend!

Does Alexandre Lacazette get a big payday?

There’s been plenty of rumors going around of Lyon’s star striker Alexandre Lacazette and where he will be playing this upcoming season. While English club Arsenal looking to find another striker to add to their fold, they only offered €35 million, which Lyon quickly rejected and said they wanted €50 million. Now, OL is looking at potentially giving their home-grown player the largest contract in club history, which is said to be at €70 million. However, with the injury to Lacazette last weekend, there may be concerns as to whether or not Arsenal keep their pursuit at the Lyon star. After their run in the second half of last season, as well as Nabil Fekir making his return back to the starting lineup, Lyon are looking to keep their key attacking pieces as they try to compete against PSG for the league title and finish better than last year’s effort in the Champions League. In the meantime, Lyon will look to bounce back from their thumping against PSG in the Trophée des Champions with a win at AS Nancy Lorraine this weekend.

Will there be a club with a Nice-like this season?

OGN Nice didn’t have the strongest of starts last season, looking likely to contend for a mid-table position. However, with Ben Arfa’s stellar performance and strong results in the second half of the season, they almost contended for a Champions League spot before having to settle for a fourth place finish in the table. Could we see another similar performance from a mid-table team? Bordeaux could be that potential team with the addition of Menez to the side, hoping to replicate a similar performance to Ben Arfa. Angers had a strong start early on last season, only to run out of gas. Caen could be a surprise team to compete with Ronny Rodelin officially joining the side and defender Romain Genevois joining from Nice.

Can Marseille regroup after a terrible season?

For a team of such talent, it was absolutely shocking to see Olympique de Marseille struggle and finish 13th in the table. With players like Michi Batshuayi, Lassana Diarra, Rémy Cabella, and Steve Mandanda, one would have expected a much higher finish. But the team was in a state of turmoil from the start of the season, with Marcelo Bielsa resigning after losing the opening match of the season against SM Caen. The club quickly replaced him with Míchel and then Franck Passi towards the end of the season after struggling to find a win. At one point during the season, they had only two wins in 19 games before finishing the season with a club-high of 18 draws. OM will look to try to bounce back from such a poor season, starting off this Sunday against Toulouse.

Is there anyone that can stop PSG?

The big question for Ligue 1 is if anyone can compete with defending champions PSG this season. While they have a new manager in Unai Emery and no longer have Zlatan to terrorize sides, this is still the strongest side in France. Taking a rejuvenated Ben Arfa from Nice to reinforce their attack with the likes of Angel Di Maria, Javier Pastore, Lucas Moura, and now Jesé, this PSG hasn’t lost a step on the attack. Emery will look to integrate youngsters like Layvin Kurzawa and Adrien Rabiot more into first-team action as they look to really put a stranglehold on the title like they did last season. If the Trophée des Champions is any indication of the kind of team they’re going to bring week in, week out, PSG will be absolutely unstoppable.

Ligue 1 begins on August 12, starting with the defending champions against Bastia. À bientôt!