Lyon welcome Troyes to Parc Olympique Lyonnais in the seventh round of Ligue 1 fixtures on Wednesday for what is, as things stand, a mid-table clash.
The hosts have dropped to ninth in the table, after a painful loss to Paris Saint-Germain at the weekend, whilst their opponents sit in 13th.
Match preview
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Lyon have produced a mixed start to their 2021-22 campaign, with new manager Peter Bosz perhaps taking time to find his feet in a new dugout.
The season started with a draw at home to Brest and a very disappointing 3-0 loss to Angers - who finished 13th last term - before Bosz's side threw away two points in calamitous fashion against newly-promoted Clermont Foot.
A 1-0 win away at Nantes sparked an improvement in the team, though, and was followed up by comfortable victories over Strasbourg and Rangers, in their first away Europa League game.
Things appeared to be getting even better when Lucas Paqueta gave Les Gones the lead at the Parc des Princes on Sunday, but they were to be cruelly denied.
Neymar won and then converted a very debatable penalty to equalise for Paris Saint-Germain, and then Mauro Icardi came off the bench to break Lyon hearts with a 92nd-minute winner.
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Nonetheless, Bosz will have seen enough from his side recently to reassure him of their considerable potential, and he will be confident that they can return to winning ways against another newly-promoted side.
Troyes found life in the top tier quite tough initially, managing just one point from their first four games - although they were very much thrown in at the deep end with a season-opener against PSG, which they commendably kept to a one-goal deficit, even having taken the lead early on.
Laurent Batlles's side did manage a maiden win at the fifth attempt, with a 2-0 victory over Metz, and followed that up with a draw at home to Montpellier HSC on Sunday.
It looked as though Yoann Touzghar's first-half goal was going to be enough to seal back-to-back victories, only for the visitors to snatch an equaliser in the 87th minute, despite having just been reduced to 10 men.
ESTAC have lost their last six meetings with Lyon though - and 14 of their last 18 - so they will have to work hard to avoid a defeat here.
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Team News
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One point to perhaps instil some hope in the visitors' minds is Lyon's significant list of injury woes.
Tino Kadewere is struggling with a muscle problem, Leo Dubois with a calf issue, Lenny Pintor and Jeff Reine-Adelaide will be out until October as they recover from ACL injuries, and Thiago Mendes is unavailable for an unknown reason.
Moussa Dembele will undergo a late fitness test to determine if he is suitably recovered from another muscle problem.
Troyes have a few issues of their own, though, with Renaud Ripart, Metinho, Yasser Larouci and Hyun-Jun Suk all unavailable with a variety of injury problems.
Lyon possible starting lineup:
Lopes; Emerson, Denayer, Boateng, Gusto; Caqueret, Guimaraes; Paqueta, Aouar, Shaqiri; Ekambi
Troyes possible starting lineup:
Gallon; Biancone, El Hajjam, Giraudon, Azamoum, Kabore; Tardieu, Kouame, Chavalerin, Rodrigues; Touzghar
We say: Lyon 2-0 Troyes
The stats are on their side and Lyon will be determined to make amends for their frustrating loss to the league leaders when they return to action on Wednesday.
Troyes will likely park the bus and play with a compact system, but Lyon's firepower should be sufficient to produce a comfortable enough victory.
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 Lyon win with a probability of 59.35%. A draw had a probability of 21.6% and a win for Troyes had a probability of 19.09%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lyon win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.96%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.95%) and 2-0 (9.78%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.14%), while for a Troyes win it was 0-1 (5.17%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 6.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Lyon would win this match.
