Two sides occupying the bottom two spots in Ligue 1 will lock horns on Sunday afternoon as Strasbourg welcome Dijon to the Stade de la Meinau.
Saint-Etienne inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Strasbourg last time out, while Dijon lost by the same scoreline at home to Brest.
Match preview
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With Saint-Etienne currently atop the rankings at this early stage of the campaign, many fans would have believed their clash with Strasbourg to be a forgone conclusion before the first whistle blew.
The game panned out as widely expected with Strasbourg falling to their third defeat of the campaign, as Thierry Laurey's side succumbed to goals from Denis Bouanga and Mahdi Camara.
As things stand, Strasbourg are rock bottom of the pile after three matches of the 2020-21 campaign, although their weekend opponents Dijon have the same disappointing goal difference of -6 at this early stage.
However, Strasbourg's recent home record is quite respectable - Les Coureurs have only lost three of their last 12 top-flight games on familiar territory – winning seven of them.
Laurey's men will no doubt view Sunday's clash as their most winnable fixture of the season so far, but Dijon should be feeling equally capable of getting their campaign up and running against their fellow strugglers.
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Stephane Jobard's side have suffered an identical fate to Strasbourg after three games – no points on the board, one goal scored and seven conceded.
Last Sunday, Dijon came up against a Brest side who had also lost their first two matches, and Les Pirates came out on top thanks to goals from Romain Perraud and Irvin Cardona.
Roger Assale was sent off nine minutes after being subbed on in what turned out to be a truly dismal afternoon for the hosts, and Dijon's five-year stint in the top flight could be in serious jeopardy if results do not start to improve in the run up to Christmas.
Of course, it is still way too early to think about who may be involved in a relegation dogfight, but a win here for either side would temporarily lift the spirits of their supporters and hopefully act as the catalyst for further victories in the next few months.
The clubs only met once last season owing to the curtailment of the campaign, and a strike from now-Montpellier forward Stephy Mavididi won the game for Dijon back in October.
Strasbourg Ligue 1 form: LLL
Dijon Ligue 1 form: LLL
Team News
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Strasbourg are still without long-term absentee Matz Sels, meaning Bingourou Kamara is set for another start in goal after demoting Eiji Kawashima to the substitutes bench against Saint-Etienne.
Laurey opted for a five-at-the-back system against Saint-Etienne but is expected to revert to a four-man defence here, meaning that attacking midfielder Adrien Thomasson could feature from the off.
As for Dijon, Pape Cheikh is doubtful and Assale is suspended, but the 26-year-old was not likely to displace Aurelien Scheidler up top.
That being said, Scheidler did miss the loss to Brest, as did Mounir Chouiar, who is being linked with a number of top-flight English clubs, but the duo could come back for this one.
Backup goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson is reportedly on the verge of joining Arsenal following the departure of Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa.
Strasbourg possible starting lineup:
Kamara; Lala, Simakan, Djiku, Caci; Sissoko, Bellegarde; Waris, Thomasson, Chariri; Ajorque
Dijon possible starting lineup:
Gomis; Chafik, Panzo, Manga, Chala; Ndong, Cheikh, Marie; Ebimbe, Scheidler, Chouiar
We say: Strasbourg 2-1 Dijon
At least one of these sides will finally register their first points of the season by the close of play on Sunday, and with both clubs desperate for all three, this should be an entertaining spectacle. However, we expect Strasbourg to prevail against a Dijon side that could still be without a number of key players in gameweek four.
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Strasbourg win with a probability of 48.4%. A draw had a probability of 27.4% and a win for Dijon had a probability of 24.17%.
The most likely scoreline for a Strasbourg win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.21%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.85%) and 2-1 (8.78%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.67%), while for a Dijon win it was 0-1 (9.15%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 14.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Strasbourg in this match.
