Poor old Marouane Chamakh. He wants to move to a Premier League club, by God he does, but Bordeaux have slapped an enormous price tag on him which has ended the interest of Arsenal and countless other suitors. To his credit, however, Chamakh continues to bang in the goals and at this rate might attract the attentions of someone with rather more money sloshing around in the bank. That'll be Man City then.Chamakh played a key part in helping Bordeaux maintain their 100% start to the season. He bagged an important brace on Saturday as the current champions defeated Sochaux 3-2, but new signing Charlie Davies was keen to share the headlines as he picked up a couple of goals for his new club too. Sadly for him, they came rather too late in a game that Bordeaux had the upper hand in from start to finish.
Chamakh headed in from a Gourcuff corner with just over half an hour gone and more goals looked on the cards for the visitors, however Sochaux's Ivan Stevanovic lent them a helping hand to turn the ball into his own net just before half time. That, though, was the stimulus for Francis Gillot to swap Stevanovic for the American and the change was noticeably swift in arriving.
Davies, who signed from Swedish club Hammarby a month ago, pulled a goal back for the home side just after the hour mark, but despite some encouraging play it was Bordeaux who scored the next and somewhat decisive goal, Chamakh once again converting from a corner. With the score at 3-1 ten minutes from time, Sochaux, to their credit, continued to search for goals and they were rewarded with a consolation when Davies pounced again from close range right at the death, but by then the damage had been done.
Bordeaux now have two wins out of two, but they were denied their place at the top of the table by Nancy who also have six points but have a far better goal difference thanks to their 4-0 trouncing of Monaco on Saturday. Many were predicting this to be a close tussle between the two mid-tablers but it was the home side that took their chances when they came along. Paul Alo'o Efoulou scored twice in the second half after Issiar Dia and André Luiz had set Nancy well on their way, and that means Pablo Correa's side lead after two games.
Marseille remain in the hunt in third place and with their own 100% record intact. They battled to a 1-0 win over 10-man Lille on Sunday, Marseille's goal coming from Brazilian striker Brandão. Mathieu Debuchy was sent off in the 64th minute for Lille and they're now in a bit of trouble having lost both their games thus far. Next up for them is a Europa League tie away to Belgian side Genk tonight and the only light on the horizon is that they've started their league season almost as badly as Lille have.
Lyon finally got their campaign off and running with a 1-0 win at home to Valenciennes. Though the former champions were dominant throughout, they were largely denied more goals thanks to Valenciennes 'keeper Jean-Louis Leca who pulled off several good saves. Lyon's breakthrough, however, came in the 36th minute when Bafetimbi Gomis got his first goal since moving from Saint-Etienne in the summer, a firm header into the top corner securing all three points for the home side.
Since then, Gomis has been on the scoresheet twice more thanks to a sterling performance in Lyon's 5-1 thrashing of Anderlecht in the Champions League last night. Further goals from Lisandro Lopez, Miralem Pjanić and Michel Bastos helped the French side all but secure their place in the next round prior to the second leg of the tie which takes place next Tuesday.
At the bottom of the table, there were second successive defeats for Grenoble, Auxerre and Saint-Etienne, as well as Lille and Valenciennes as we've just heard. Saint-Etienne were outclassed and outplayed by a Toulouse team looking for their first win of the season. Goals from Machado, Gignac and Sissoko showed the difference in class between the two sides and despite Emmanuel Riviere's equaliser when the score was at 1-1, Toulouse found it all too easy to wrap the game up with a 3-1 win.
Grenoble's defeat meant a first ever win in the top flight for Boulogne on Sunday. Two goals from Gregory Thil near the end of the first half put the newly-promoted side in a strong position, and their lead could have been more going into the interval had Thil not made more of his other chances. Grenoble came straight back out for the second half with a goal from Daniel Ljoboja and they dominated the second half action, but Boulogne held onto their victory despite a late disallowed goal from Nicolas Dieuze.
Auxerre's second defeat came at the hands of Ligue 2 champions Lens who put in a much improved performance compared to last weekend. Auxerre, lacking some of their best players, looked abject and were content to adopt a cautious counter-attacking approach, but the home side were solid and earned a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Kevin Monnet-Pacquet and Razak Boukari.
Elsewhere, Montpellier are still looking for their first win after a second successive draw, this time a 2-2 away to Lorient. They were 2-0 up with only a third of the game remaining but Kevin Gameiro pulled one back after 68 minutes and Laurent Koscielny got an equaliser at the very end to deny Montpellier all three points.
PSG finally got their opening week stutter behind them with a convincing 3-1 win over Le Mans. That said, they went 1-0 down after 22 minutes through Thorstein Helstad and had some help from a Frederic Thomas own goal, but coach Antoine Kambouare won't mind that as he gets his first win in charge of the team from the capital.
Finally, Rennes slipped to fourth in the table after their 1-1 draw away to Nice. Rennes lost Junichi Inamoto following a second yellow-card offence with thirteen minutes remaining, but by then they'd already equalised and were able to hold out for a point to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
And that's all for now. Until next week, it's à bientôt. Results and tables here.
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