Troyes will face Angers in Ligue 1 on Sunday with the hosts searching for their second win of the season.
Angers enter the weekend in third place as they have collected 12 points from their opening seven games, having only lost once.
Match preview
© Reuters
Troyes won Ligue 2 last term and their first appearance in Ligue 1 since the 2017-18 season has seen them only win one of their opening seven games.
Their opening four games only yielded one point, but they did improve in their next two fixtures, as they beat Metz 2-0 and drew 1-1 at home to Montpellier.
However, Laurent Batlles saw his side lose during the week when they travelled to Lyon, and despite taking the lead through Xavier Chavalerin, they succumbed to a 3-1 defeat.
Their home form will need to improve if they are to avoid the drop as their three home games have only resulted in one point, which means they are still searching for their first home win of the season.
If they are to win at the weekend then they will look to Chavalerin and Yoann Touzghar to score the goals as they have both scored two each this season.
© Reuters
After finishing 13th last season, Angers have started this campaign in fine form earning 12 points from their opening seven games.
They started the season by winning three of their first five fixtures, and their sole defeat of the campaign came in the sixth matchday when they lost 4-1 to Nantes.
In their most recent fixture they played out a goalless draw with Marseille and their fast start has slightly slowed as they are now winless in their last three games.
A major factor in Angers' success is that they have been solid defensively, as they have only conceded six times this season and have kept four clean sheets.
On Sunday they will aim to replicate their last competitive meeting with Troyes that saw Angers win 3-1 in January 2018.
- L
- D
- L
- W
- D
- L
- W
- D
- W
- D
- L
- D
Team News
Troyes are without Yasser Larouci and Suk Hyun-Jun, who are both out with thigh issues.
Batlles also has Yoann Salmier and Metinho absent through injury.
Karim Azamoum was taken off in the first half of the Lyon encounter and the club have since confirmed he has suffered an ACL injury.
Angers are without Zinedine Ould Khaled, who is out with a thigh problem.
Gerald Baticle has doubts over Sofiane Boufal, who missed the game against Marseille with a knee problem, and the Angers boss said that a decision will be made about his fitness over the weekend.
Troyes possible starting lineup:
Gallon; El Hajjam, Giraudon, Sandler; Kabore, Chavalerin, Kouame, Biancone; Rodrigues, Ripart, Touzghar
Angers possible starting lineup:
Bernardoni; Manceau, Traore, Thomas; Ebosse, Mangani, Mendy, Fulgini, Doumbia; Cho, Bahoken
We say: Troyes 1-2 Angers
Troyes are still searching for their first home win of the season and it will be tricky for the hosts to beat an Angers side who have impressed this term.
We think Angers will have too much quality and should just edge out Troyes in this one, which would continue their fine start to the campaign.
Top tip
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 Troyes win with a probability of 40.79%. A win for Angers had a probability of 30.76% and a draw had a probability of 28.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Troyes win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.81%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.15%) and 2-0 (7.9%). The likeliest Angers win was 0-1 (10.71%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.21%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 13.2% likelihood.
