Being hunted down by PSG is like .....

Jan 24, 2026
football betting tips -
 
Ligue 1: (written Friday 07:00)
 
2025/26 Overall Home Away
P W D L F A Gdf Pts Form P W D L F A P W D L F A
  1   Lens 18 14 1 3 32 13 +19 43 WWWW 9 8 0 1 17 4 9 6 1 2 15 9
  2   Paris SG 18 13 3 2 40 15 +25 42 WWWW 9 8 1 0 22 4 9 5 2 2 18 11
  3   Marseille 18 11 2 5 41 19 +22 35 WLWL 9 6 2 1 24 10 9 5 0 4 17 9
  4   Lyon 18 10 3 5 27 18 +9 33 WWWL 9 7 0 2 16 7 9 3 3 3 11 11
  5   Lille 18 10 2 6 33 25 +8 32 LLWW 9 6 1 2 16 8 9 4 1 4 17 17
  6   Rennes 18 8 7 3 30 25 +5 31 XWWL 9 5 3 1 19 9 9 3 4 2 11 16
  7   Strasbourg 18 8 3 7 28 22 +6 27 WXOL 9 6 1 2 16 5 9 2 2 5 12 17
  8   Toulouse 18 7 5 6 29 23 +6 26 WLWW 10 4 3 3 19 15 8 3 2 3 10 8
  9   Monaco 18 7 2 9 28 33 -5 23 LLLL 10 5 1 4 18 18 8 2 1 5 10 15
  10   Brest 18 6 4 8 24 29 -5 22 LWLW 9 4 3 2 14 11 9 2 1 6 10 18
  11   Angers 18 6 4 8 20 25 -5 22 LLWW 9 4 2 3 14 12 9 2 2 5 6 13
  12   Lorient 18 5 7 6 23 30 -7 22 WXOW 9 4 4 1 18 15 9 1 3 5 5 15
  13   Paris FC 18 5 4 9 24 32 -8 19 WLLO 8 2 2 4 12 15 10 3 2 5 12 17
  14   Le Havre 18 4 7 7 16 24 -8 19 XWLO 9 3 4 2 11 9 9 1 3 5 5 15
  15   Nice 18 5 3 10 21 35 -14 18 LXLL 9 4 2 3 12 12 9 1 1 7 9 23
  16   Nantes 18 3 5 10 17 30 -13 14 LWLL 9 1 2 6 9 17 9 2 3 4 8 13
  17   Auxerre 18 3 3 12 14 28 -14 12 LLLW 9 3 1 5 10 11 9 0 2 7 4 17
  18   Metz 18 3 3 12 19 40 -21 12 LXLL 8 2 2 4 7 10 10 1 1 8 12 30
 
Being hunted down by PSG is a little like being chased by a wild animal, it is unlikely to end well, but you want to stay ahead as long as possible! 
 
Friday, 23 January 2026
19 Auxerre - Paris SG
Saturday, 24 January 2026
19 Le Havre - Monaco
19 Rennes - Lorient
19 Marseille - Lens
Sunday, 25 January 2026
19 Lille - Strasbourg
19 Metz - Lyon
19 Nantes - Nice
19 Brest - Toulouse
19 Paris FC - Angers
 
We have to assume that PSG will win and move ahead of Lens on Friday and then the current leaders will need to respond at Marseille on Saturday. That is a tough fixture, but OM played on Wednesday and lost 3-0 at home to Liverpool and that must have offered great encouragement to RCL who have had 7 days to prepare solely for their trip to the Velodrome . Marseille also travel to Club Brugge in midweek where defeat could see them exit the Champions League and that is a major distraction. Lens' defensive record is so good that it is no surprise that xGA suggests they should have conceded more and that is normally true of any top of the table side and similarly they should also have been outperforming offensive numbers (xGF) too, but that gives them an additional 9 goals and that is the kind of differential usually only reserved for teams at the foot of the table. Hinting that the "prey" can stay ahead a little longer and record an 11th straight win this weekend and 15th in  16 starts.
 
I feel that I have to stay with Paris FC who won for us at Nantes last weekend where I wrote....
 
It is PFC I want to focus more on, they got a far more positive preseason write up.....
 
It has been 25 years since there was a Ligue 1 Paris derby and French football has long needed another team in the capital. It was always eventually going to be Paris FC and we have spoken a lot in recent seasons about their ambition. Since last year the majority owner has been Agache Sports which is owned by Bernard Arnault and his family, he is the chairman and CEO of LVMH and with a net worth of over $150bn he is one of the richest men in the world (top 10). Now that they are in the top flight, they want to stay and their budget this season of 120m immediately puts them 6th and half of that was said to be earmarked for transfers and that is more than 7-8 clubs have as their total operating costs! It is circa four times what most promoted clubs have at their disposal and whilst that doesn't guarantee success, it certainly makes life at the higher level a little easier, although it brings with it added pressure and levels of expectation.Obviously no one has left the club that they wanted to keep and so far they have spent just half of that quoted transfer budget on four players, a quality Brazilian CB from Porto and three players (two senior) all with top flight experience. I expect more to arrive before the window closes and they appear to be tracking some big names at what would be fancy fees for most Ligue 1 clubs.
 
PFC are actively negotiating to appoint former Bayern Munich executive Marco Neppe as their new technical director.The 47-year-old German, who served as Bayern’s sporting director from 2014 to 2024, has been advising the newly promoted Ligue 1 club behind the scenes since their promotion in May 2025.
Neppe was instrumental in Bayern’s signings of players like Alphonso Davies and Harry Kane and brings extensive experience to Paris FC’s ambitious project. If that comes about or not, he has been advising and shows the kind of waters that they are swimming in now. I suspect that 25/26 will be one of learning and seeing where they stand but they are very ambitious and a relegation campaign is almost unthinkable and even if it happened, I feel they would be going deep into pockets in January.
 
They are flying to close to the drop zone, but xP sees them as three points better and 5-6 ahead of Nantes. Paris FC have perhaps surprisingly kept faith, at least as I type, with head coach Stephane Gilli. If he and they needed a boost it came on Monday at PSG, when they put out their very close neighbours in the Coupe de France in a shock 1-0 win, just 8 days after they had lost 2-1 in the same stadium in the league. Ahead of that I had written....
 
PSG-Paris FC is the first Paris derby game since the 1978-79 season and only the third competitive meeting in history and is a big deal, especially for PFC who have lived in the very long shadow cast by their neighbours for their entire existence. The two clubs are most certainly "neighbours" with, incredibly, their respective stadiums the Parc des Princes and the Stade Jean-Bouin across the road from each other, 193m apart, the closest derby in the world between two clubs who do not share a stadium.
 
I say "shock" but I don't think Gilli was surprised, as ahead of the game, and I wished I had seen this beforehand, but better late than never, he spoke of several areas in which he said his team could hurt the European champions and highlighted how he felt his team had been unlucky in the first meeting. He touched upon how open PSG were and with too much space in behind their defence and how they wanted to press hard for 90+ minutes, but right now were unable to do that effectively for the entire game and we have seen ourselves, lots of bad spells from them during games this season, it is all relative of course, but PSG have conceded 2+ goals eight times since the summer and not always against strong sides and care should be exercised when betting PSG against teams who play bravely. Anyway, as always, I digress. I think Gilli is tactically strong, he kind of wrote how the second leg was going to play out 24 hours beforehand and he and PFC were very good in the second half of last season, when they were playing teams for the second time and he can use knowledge picked up from the first and we might see similar over the coming months and the board are obviously waiting, expecting, demanding a response.
 
Angers had played a day earlier, losing 5-2 at home to Marseille when I highlighted their problems, some current, some potentially on the horizon .....
 
Angers are well positioned currently in 10th but limited and goals will always be an issue for them and in preseason I wrote .....
 
Angers are another club in their second season back in the top flight and 14th place last season was what they would have taken if offered 12 months ago. They had the lowest budget last season and will operate on the same this time round although they now only have the second lowest! They were relegated in 2023 and won just 4 games that season, scoring 33 goals, in 24/25 they won 10 scoring one fewer (32) and only basement club Montpellier scored at a lower rate. They survived by 3 points but xP says it should have been closer and it is difficult to look at their other numbers and not agree. They collected the fewest points in the second half of the campaign of all survivors and I am not sure they will be signing I'm a Survivor come next May! Angers shop in the bargain basement and even those shelves look bare at present, but I assume they will bring in a few loans this week.
 
They have 18 goals which is one fewer than at this stage 12 months ago, from which point on they only scored another 13 . XP places them 16th and xGA suggests they should have conceded an additional 9 goals and my suspicion is that they are going to be very grateful for the 22 points they currently have on board come the end of the season.
 
If PFC play as well out of possession this week as they did last, goals , or even a goal are going to be very hard to come by for Angers.
 
2.25 units RC Lens level ball @ 2.69 asian line.
 
2.25 units Paris FC -1 ball @ 2.64 asian line.
 
Good luck!
 

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Country: 
France
Sport: 
Football
Competition: 
French Ligue 1

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