Deiver Machado, who came off the bench to get Lens’ goal in that 1-1 draw against Lille a little under a fortnight ago, is also set to miss Friday night’s match. Jimmy Cabot is the only other player absent for the clash against Les Ciel et Marine. 

Nampalys Mendy looks set to partner Andy Diouf, a Golden Boy nominee, in Lens’ midfield. The former Leicester City man has brought an element of stability since his arrival on a free transfer this summer, and Salis Abdul Samed therefore looks set to drop to the bench. 

Lens likely lineup v Le Havre

Brice Samba; Massadio Haïdara, Kevin Danso, Jonathan Gradit; Przemyslaw Frankowski, Andy Diouf, Nampalys Mendy, Ruben Aguilar; Adrien Thomasson, Wesley Saïd, Florian Sotoca. (L’Éq)

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Doherty now lives in Éterat in North-Western France. The Libertines frontman is a well-known Queens Park Rangers fan, but he is now also heavily invested in Le Havre, even though he admits that supporting the French side feels like cheating on his wife. “In terms of QPR, I still don’t feel too at ease when I shout ‘Allez les Ciel et Marine.’ It’s a bit as if I’m cheating on my wife. In any case, what’s certain is that I won’t be able to support another team in England that isn’t QPR,” Doherty told L’Équipe.

Last season, Les Ciel et Marine secured their promotion to Ligue 1 thanks to a 1-0 victory over Dijon FCO at the Stade Océane in June. That victory sparked a pitch invasion before the final whistle, which Doherty now reveals he was a part of. “I love going to the Stade Océane with my step-brother. I was there for the promotion to Ligue 1 and I was part of the supporters who invaded the pitch at the end of the match. I am impressed by the fervour of the Barbarians, the Le Havre ultras, who never stop singing, even when the match is over,” said Doherty. 

Luka Elsner’s Le Havre are currently experiencing a successful return to the French top flight. His side have two wins, three draws and three losses so far this season, and they currently sit 13th in Ligue 1. They are currently two points ahead of FC Lorient, who currently occupy the relegation play-off spot and six points ahead of Olympique Lyonnais who currently occupy the first automatic relegation spot. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

The French midfielder is a free agent following the expiry of his contract with Olympiacos in June. West Brom and his former club Sunderland have both been in contact with the former OM midfielder and his entourage but no concrete offers have been made as of yet. Fulham reportedly considered the former Inter Milan midfielder to replace João Palhinha, but his subsequent move to Bayern Munich collapsed. 

Atlético Madrid are perhaps the club who have shown the most interest in the 33-year-old with M’Vila discussing the prospect of signing for the La Liga club with several figures at the Wanda Metropolitano. Le Havre and Istanbul Basaksehir are also interested in signing the midfielder. M’Vila is keen to continue his playing career but is yet to decide on his next club. 

GFFN | Liam Wraith

Le Havre are known for their youth recruitment, and for bringing through some of the top talents in French football. Sale has been a big part of that and was responsible for the arrivals of Paul Pogba and Benjamin Mendy in particular. He has spent 18 years at the club in two spells (2000-12 and then 201-2023). 

Sale has now resigned from his role at the Ligue 1 club, as reported by L’Équipe. He had already been close to leaving the club back in July 2022, before ultimately remaining with the club for their first season back in the top-flight. He will now join Ligue 2 side Dunkerque, where he will hold the role of the head of recruitment for the first team as well as the club’s youth team. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Veretout was impressive in the first half against Brighton, scoring Marseille’s second goal in the 20th minute. However, he pulled up in the 47th minute, clutching his hamstring. He was subsequently replaced, and his exit from the pitch coincided with Les Phocéens loss of control over proceedings. 

Gennaro Gattuso will also have to do without the France international on Sunday, he revealed in a press conference, attended by Get French Football News. “For sure we lost a very good player, who was playing a very good match, I hope it’s not serious, but he will be out Sunday against Le Havre. But there is the international break coming up and we’ll see after that,” said the Italian manager, who was making his Vélodrome bow. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Lyon searched for their first victory of the season as they hosted newly-promoted Le Havre. New manager Fabio Grosso was in the stands watching alongside club president John Textor to see his new team in action. 

The first half yielded little promise from the perspective of both teams. With no real leader in the technical area for OL, it felt very much a case of too many cooks spoil the soup. Sonny Anderson, Jean-François Vulliez and Jérémie Bréchet were all barking instructions at the Lyon players but failed to organise their team with any real gusto. The hosts were in control of the proceedings but failed to create any clear openings, despite a rather direct approach, and the first half was played at a rather timid pace. The teams went into the break level with the game goalless.

The second half started in a much more frenetic fashion with Lyon carving out three chances in the opening 5 minutes. Cherki arguably had the best but his shot was tame and he should’ve slipped in Lacazette who was in a better position. Nuamah then had a glorious chance to put Lyon ahead after a perfectly weighted ball from Tolisso but his shot was straight at Desmas in the Le Havre goal. 

A brilliantly worked set piece was knocked across the face of goal by Tagliafico but Diomandé’s attempted header was wayward and evaded Lacazette – Les Gones remained frustrated. Grandsir missed an open net at the back post which almost rubbed even more salt into Lyon’s wounds. Chelsea loanee Diego Moreira entered the fray in the last 13 minutes to make his debut and almost made an instant impact as he linked up with Cherki but the ball just wouldn’t fall for the French U21 international in a congested penalty area.

Lyon continued to pepper the Le Havre goal but they defended stoutly to earn a well-deserved point. Lots to think about for Grosso after a disappointing result for OL despite a vigoruous attempt at a resurgence in the second half.

Lyon player ratings: 

Anthony Lopes – 5

Saël Kumbedi – 6

Clinton Mata – 5

Sinaly Diomandé – 5

Nicolás Tagliafico – 6

Paul Akououkou – 5 – The Ivorian’s Lyon debut went fine. He did his job as the defensive shield and won the ball well. A fairly positive start. 

Maxence Caqueret – 6 – Brought energy and vigour to a midfield which was non-existentt in the first half. He aided Cherki in creative exploits in the second half and was the only real presence in the Lyon midfield.

Corentin Tolisso – 5

Ernest Nuamah – 6

Alexandre Lacazette – 4 – The Lyon captain’s return was rather disappointing. He failed to register an effort on target and was rather an isolated figure at times as he struggled to gain any foothold in attacking play.

Rayan Cherki – 7 – The French U21 international was involved in everything positive for Lyon but nothing just seemed to fall for their attackers. The way all creativity and attacking play funneled through him showed Lyon’s heavy reliance on him to make things happen.

GFFN | Liam Wraith

Grosso will be forced to watch his first game in Lyon since 2009 from the stands, when he left the club as a player, with Jean-François Vulliez and Jérémie Bréchet taking charge of the match against Le Havre. However, there will be one return with Lacazette available after serving a suspension. Henrique, Dejan Lovren and Tino Kadewere will all miss out with injury.

Paul Akouokou is also expected to make his debut after completing his €3m deadline-day move from Real Bétis. Caqueret and Tolisso should join Akouokou in midfield. Chelsea loanee Diego Moreira could also make his debut, but from the bench, with Cherki and Nuamah preferred on the flanks. 

Lyon likely lineup v Le Havre:

Anthony Lopes – Clinton Mata, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Sinaly Diomandé, Nicolás Tagliafico – Paul Akououkou, Maxence Caqueret, Corentin Tolisso – Ernest Nuamah, Rayan Cherki, Alexandre Lacazette

GFFN | Liam Wraith

El Arouch has only played one minute of Ligue 1 football this season, despite Lyon’s poor form so far. Laurent Blanc’s side have just one point following two losses and a tepid draw against OGC Nice. However, despite his lack of minutes, he won’t be leaving Les Gones on loan before the closure of the window. 

Le Havre made a move to sign the France U20 international on a season-long loan deal, however, this move has been rejected. Stade Brestois were also interested in loaning El Arouch, as were Alavés and Stuttgart, but Lyon are not open to the playmaker’s departure, and he will instead remain at the Groupama Stadium. Given Bradley Barcola’s departure to Paris Saint-Germain, El Arouch could be in line for more first-team football between now and the end of the season. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Since his €14m move from Clermont Foot last summer, the Guinean international has failed to impress at Lille. Just weeks into his career with Les Dogues, he was dropped for the match against Paris Saint-Germain for disciplinary reasons, after a video circulated on social media, showing the striker at a nightclub the night before the fixture. Bayo apologised for the incident, however, he couldn’t replicate his Clermont form for Les Nordistes. 

Last season, he played 30 times for Lille, scoring five times and registering one assist. He will now get the chance to get back on track with newly-promoted Le Havre. He is set to join the club on loan without an option to make the deal permanent. Le Havre had been attempting to sign Olympique Lyonnais’ Tino Kadewere, but an agreement could not be reached. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Le Havre could have felt hard done by considering that an offside Amine Gouiri, who picked up Doku’s #10 shirt, seemed to have obstructed Arthur Desmas. Still, the Normans had all kinds of trouble handling their opponents. The returning Adrien Truffert missed a sitter after another light-speed counter-attack from the home side. Desmas then poorly parried an inswinging free-kick from Benjamin Bourigeaud and centre-back Christopher Wooh was on cue to make it two.

Rennes were in full flow when, like against Les Grenats, they were caught napping against the run of play. Opéri was left with too much time and space on the left to cross for Nabil Alioui, who outpaced Truffert to direct a really good header past Mandanda. Despite being mostly dominated, Luka Elsner’s side finished the first half strongly and returned to the dressing room with only a one-goal deficit.

The second half was more evenly disputed between the two sides. Le Havre made matters harder for themselves. Samuel Grandsir was given his marching orders by Eric Wattelier on the hour mark after picking up a second yellow card. The hosts were then guilty of blatant complacency. Loïc Négo easily beat Jeanuël Belocian, who had replaced Truffert, before finding Alioui whose perfect, although obvious, attempt of a right-curler beat Mandanda.

With a man down and a point in sight, the visitors tried to weather the late Rennes storm. Desmas came up big to deflect a low shot from Blas and Doué hit the post with a volley deep in injury time. Eventually, Le Havre bravely clung on to their second away point of the season. As for Rennes, they missed the opportunity to go top and lost two points that were there for the taking.

Rennes – Player Ratings

Steve Mandanda, 5

Lorenz Assignon, 5

Christopher Wooh, 5

Arthur Theate, 5

Adrien Truffert, 4

Benjamin Bourigeaud, 5

Nemanja Matić, 5 – He took his time before finding his feet, but the Serbian passed the test posed by his first outing at the Roazhon Park. The former Chelsea midfielder showcased his trademark vision of the game, availability and positional awareness. However, he lost the ball that led to Alioui’s first goal.

Enzo Le Fée, 6

Ludovic Blas, 6 – After a convincing pre-season but a difficult outing away at Lens, the mercurial right-winger wasted no time in making his mark at his new home. The former Guingamp and Nantes man may not boast Jérémy Doku’s dribbling ability, but he compensates with his tremendous activity, his passing range and his ball-striking technique.

Arnaud Kalimuendo, 3 – It was another underwhelming display for the France U21 international centre-forward. The PSG youth product was a hard man to feed the ball to and his decision-making let him down. His €25m transfer tag is becoming harder to justify.

Amine Gouiri, 5

Le Havre – Player Ratings

Arthur Desmas, 5

Christopher Opéri, 5

Gautier Lloris, 5

Arouna Sangante, 5

Yoann Salmier, 5

Loïc Nego, 6

Yassine Kechta, 6 – The Moroccan was his side’s best midfielder this afternoon. Even in facing one of Ligue 1’s best midfield, he stood out, played without fear and displayed maturity well beyond his age (21). Le Havre have a player to watch here.

Abdoulaye Touré, 4

Daler Kuzyaiev, 4

Nabil Alioui, 7 – The striker made the most of Rennes’ somewhat lenient defenders to make them pay, not once but twice. He went ahead of Truffert to head it in to halve the deficit. He then found Mandanda’s bottom-left corner with an inspired curler.

Samuel Grandsir, 2 – He had little to no influence on his side’s attacking play and was unnecessarily sent off before his substitution. After picking up a yellow card for a high foot on Assignon before half-time, he got a second one on the hour mark in catching the right-back’s ankle with a mistimed tackle. A game to forget.

GFFN | Bastien Cheval