Lens vs Marseille

Saturday evening the Lens will host Marseille at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis this will be one of the highlight fixtures in Ligue 1 this weekend.

Before this season, both clubs have clashed 100 occasions in the Ligue 1, although Lens has 39 victories in the game head-to-head with Marseille’s 40.

At the beginning of the new season they finished eighth in the league under Will Still in a campaign where Lens went eight games without suffering a single loss.

But, of course, the Blood and Gold were very, very unlucky against Lille and almost no one can take a point away from PSG, so both games can be easily explained, especially when Amien turned the screw right before the international break with 3-2 devastating home victory over Nantes.

Lens came out to the final four minutes 2-1 down, however goals from Hamzat Ojediran and Adrien Thomasson in the space of two minutes secured the team an invaluable three points as they continue the chase the top four spots while Still’s side is now only two points away from Lille.

It was unusual for this Lens team to be in the midst of such tension issues primarily given their capacity to have scored nine goals and conceded a paltry of seven in the first 10 matches of the season played.

While Nantes struck for two, Lens have now shipped four in their previous two home fixtures, one more than they had in total in seven previous home games, and with Marseille up next they may well find scoring against them just as tricky.

However, l’OM have tasted the visiting side’s fury in recent pasts because a win will make it three in a row on Lens soil for the first time since the 1980s.

Although they lost 3-1 to Auxerre at the Velodrome shortly before halftime, a game in which they were behind three at the half, Marseille will be relieved to be traveling again.

Roberto De Zerbi's team has a poorer home record than only Angers, with just five points from five games thus far. Following the unexpected loss, the Italian manager oddly declared he would be happy to step down.

Despite being nine points behind Paris Saint-Germain, the Marseille board has stated that they still believe in De Zerbi despite the fact that they are currently in third place after 11 games.

However, that loss has also put Lille, Lyon, Reims, and their next opponent Lens within striking distance of them; if they lose again, they can lose their place in the top four.

With 15 points from their six games, Marseille has the best road record in the division, thus it seems impossible based on their away record.

OM has won six of their last seven away games in Ligue 1, which is a stunning turnaround given that they had only won three of the previous 21 games before this run. Only Barcelona has won more away games in Europe's top five leagues this season.