Nantes can hand Nice their first defeat of the Ligue 1 campaign when the two sides meet on Saturday at Stade de la Beaujoire.
Heading into this encounter, Les Aiglons are just a point behind Paris Saint-Germain for the league lead following a 1-0 victory over Toulouse, while Les Canaris are 11th after playing to a 0-0 draw with Le Havre.
Match preview
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Jocelyn Gourvennec begins his tenure as Nantes coach this weekend under challenging circumstances, with this team currently winless in four consecutive league fixtures.
Gourvennec inherits a side that have been indecisive in the attacking third of late, failing to find the back of the net in three of their previous four outings.
While it has not gone well for them over the past few weeks, the season in general has not been all that bad when compared to the previous one, with La Maison Jaune three points ahead of where they were at this same stage in 2022-23.
Nine of their 15 points in Ligue 1 this season have occurred at Stade de la Beaujoire, where Nantes have only conceded once in their previous three domestic affairs.
That could have been even better had they held onto a couple of advantages, as this team have squandered five points at home from winning positions when leading in the second half.
Les Canaris have triumphed in just one of their previous seven encounters against Nice across all competitions, with that victory coming in the final of the 2021-22 Coupe de France (1-0).
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The opening 13 league matches for Nice have gone about as well as Francesco Farioli could have hoped for in his debut campaign, with his side one of only three (Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich) in the top five European leagues that have yet to suffer a domestic defeat this season.
Dating back to the end of the previous top-flight campaign, Le Gym are unbeaten in 16 successive matches in this competition, the longest current run in the big five European leagues, while they are just three games short of matching their longest run without a top-flight defeat in club history (19 from November 1958 to May 1959).
At home or away, Nice have been among the most consistent sides in Ligue 1, unbeaten in seven successive league fixtures as the visiting team, their longest such run without a loss in the top flight since October 2007-March 2008 (10).
Farioli worked for a long time as a goalkeeping coach, so perhaps it should not be a big surprise that his side have looked virtually impenetrable at the back to this point of the season, posting eight successive clean sheets in this competition while only conceding four goals thus far.
They are only the fourth side in the history of this competition to have 10 clean sheets at this stage of the season, with the others being Guingamp (10 in 1995-96), PSG (10 in 1996-97) and Lille (11 in 2013-14).
After squandering four points from winning positions in their opening two games of the campaign, Nice have since boasted a 100% domestic record in every match in which they have found the back of the net.
Team News
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Fabien Centonze should be fully recovered from his hamstring strain very soon as he eyes a return to the Nantes lineup, Quentin Merlin is nearly back to full fitness after hurting his groin, while Ignatius Ganago is out for the season with an ACL injury.
Alban Lafont finally got some help from his defensive unit last Sunday as the Nantes shot-stopper did not have to make a single save in the draw versus Le Havre, having conceded eight times in his three matches before that.
La Maison Jaune fought their way back twice from a one-goal deficit in this exact fixture last season, with Moussa Sissoko and Mostafa Mohamed each finding the back of the net in a 2-2 draw.
Nice will be without Youcef Atal, who is still serving a suspension for some antisemitic posts made about the Israel-Hamas war, while Jean-Clair Todibo is still experiencing physical discomfort.
Terem Moffi collected his team-leading fourth goal of the season in the victory over Toulouse, while Marcin Bulka made three stops to pick up his league-leading 10th clean sheet.
Moffi had a goal and an assist in their previous visit to Stade de la Beaujoire, scoring five minutes into that contest before setting up the other goal by Youssouf Ndayishimiye.
Nantes possible starting lineup:
Lafont; Pierre-Gabriel, Comert, Castelletto, Duverne; Chirivella, Moutoussamy; Adson, Sissoko, Simon; Mohamed
Nice possible starting lineup:
Bulka; Lotomba, Rosario, Dante, Bard; Sanson, Thuram, Perraud; Laborde, Moffi, Claude-Maurice
We say: Nantes 0-1 Nice
When you have a backline as well-drilled and disciplined as Nice, you can afford to take your time going forward when in possession.
We expect to see the visitors frustrate La Maison Jaune, who are struggling in the attacking third, while Les Aiglons always seem to do just enough to get by.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
