Marseille aim to continue their undefeated start to the season on Wednesday when they travel to the Raymond Kopa Stadium to face Angers, who have also started the new campaign well.
The hosts will be looking for a quick response after losing their first game of the season at the weekend against Nantes.
Match preview
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Angers have made a brilliant start to the season, after finishing in midtable during the previous campaign, and despite having lost their last match, they are currently in fourth place and have the chance to overtake their opponents with a win.
Their previous fixture turned out to be one to forget as they were comfortably beaten 4-1 in what was quite a surprising result against Nantes.
Angers were blown away in the early moments of the game, having found themselves two goals down after just six minutes, and while Ismael Traore scored in the 10th minute, it was not enough to change the momentum.
Despite conceding so many goals on Saturday, Gerald Baticle's team have been strong defensively, having kept a clean sheet in half of their games so far.
That is something they will look to do again as Angers try to put their previous meeting with Marseille behind them after they were beaten 3-2 at the end of last season.
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Les Phoceens have started the 2021-22 campaign with great confidence, having gone unbeaten in their first five league games, while also picking up a draw in the Europa League.
Jorge Sampaoli's squad are currently second in the table, trailing PSG by five points, although they do have a game in hand which could see them put some real pressure onto them.
The only time Marseille have slipped up in Ligue 1 so far is when they drew 2-2 with Bordeaux, which is a game that they finished with 10-men after Leonardo Balerdi was sent off.
However, they come into this particular match on the back of a 2-0 victory against Rennes with goals from Seny Dieng and Amine Harit securing the three points.
This was the second clean sheet in a row that Marseille have been able to keep in the league, and that is something they will have to work hard to continue against a team who have scored in every game this season.
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Team News
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Following the defeat against Nantes, there could be changes for Angers as they look to quickly respond to their first loss of the season, with the likes of Pierrick Capelle and Azzedine Ounahi possibly being brought into the starting XI.
Enzo Ebosse was put on the bench on Saturday after returning from injury in the previous game, but his fitness should now be strong enough to potentially be involved from the first whistle.
After scoring three goals in his last two league performances, Dieng is sure to lead the line for Marseille on Wednesday as he continues his impressive start to the season.
Dimitri Payet is set to be just behind him in the number 10 role, providing as much creativity as possible, while they will also be boosted by the return of Alvaro Gonzalez for this match.
Angers possible starting lineup:
Bernardoni; Manceau, Traore, Thomas; Cabot, Mendy, Mangani, Doumbia; Cho, Boufal, Fulgini
Marseille possible starting lineup:
Lopez; Saliba, Balerdi, Petroni; Lirola, Gueye, Guendouzi; Under, Fuente, Payet; Dieng
We say: Angers 1-2 Marseille
This is going to be a tricky test for Marseille if they want to continue their unbeaten start to the season, as Angers are very strong defensively.
However, considering the form that they are in right now, the visitors should end up having enough quality and experience to see them through in this match.
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 Marseille win with a probability of 47.74%. A draw had a probability of 26.7% and a win for Angers had a probability of 25.58%.
The most likely scoreline for a Marseille win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.9%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (9.26%) and 1-2 (9.02%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.56%), while for an Angers win it was 1-0 (8.75%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with an 9% likelihood.
