Montpellier HSC will hope to build on their impressive victory over Lyon when they welcome Angers to the Stade de la Mosson for Sunday's Ligue 1 clash.
Similarly, Angers are also looking to secure a second victory on the bounce after prevailing in a tightly-fought encounter with Reims last time out.
Match preview
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Montpellier have clearly recovered from their opening day defeat to Rennes – as evidenced by their dominant display against Lyon in gameweek three.
Captain Hilton was given his marching orders in the dying minutes, with Memphis Depay converting the resulting penalty, but a Teji Savanier brace put Lyon to the sword as Montpellier picked up their second top-flight victory on the bounce.
Michel Der Zakarian's men were full value for that memorable win and currently occupy a spot in the top five heading into Sunday's showdown with Angers, and that is exactly where Montpellier want to be come the end of the season.
Furthermore, Montpellier's home record speaks for itself – the only team to defeat Der Zakarian's side at the Stade de la Mosson over the previous 15 league matches was Paris Saint-Germain – with Montpellier boasting six wins from their last seven in Ligue 1 on familiar territory.
However, La Paillade are now coming up against a side whom they have failed to beat in their last four attempts, with Angers recording two victories and two draws against Montpellier since 2018.
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Angers can also boast two wins from their opening three matches of the 2020-21 campaign, although Stephane Moulin's men did not dominate Reims by any means last Sunday.
Wout Faes saw red for Reims before the half-time whistle, but renowned penalty stopper Predrag Rajkovic produced a stunning save to keep out Stephane Bahoken's spot kick.
Both teams would finish the match with 10 men after Romain Thomas was also ejected from the field of play, but Bahoken eventually got the better of Rajkovic to win the game for the hosts.
While Moulin's men have enjoyed two shutouts thus far, Angers have only found the net two times as well, something that will need to be rectified if Les Scoistes are to keep this momentum going heading into the winter months.
Montpellier HSC Ligue 1 form: LWW
Angers Ligue 1 form: WLW
Team News
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Hilton, who turned 43 last Sunday, will miss this one out for Montpellier owing his sending off against Lyon.
Nicolas Cozza is therefore expected to deputise in the heart of defence, while midfielder Florent Mollet will be holding out for a recall to the starting lineup after returning from suspension against Les Gones.
However, it is difficult to see Der Zakarian making many changes to the side that put Lyon to the sword last time out.
As for Angers, Thomas is another defender who will watch this one from the sidelines, while Baptiste Santamaria has joined Freiburg.
Bahoken got off the mark for the new season against Reims and will look to build on that here, and Mateo Pavlovic is likely to fill the void in defence with Thomas suspended.
Highly-rated full-back Rayan Ait Nouri is yet to feature this season following a positive coronavirus diagnosis, although the 19-year-old is being tipped to leave amid reported interest from Barcelona and Leicester City.
Montpellier HSC possible starting lineup:
Omlin; Congre, Mendes, Cozza; Souquet, Le Tallec, Ferri, Ristic; Savanier; Delort, Laborde
Angers possible starting lineup:
Bernardoni; Bamba, Traore, Pavlovic, Doumbia; Coulibaly, Fulgini, Mangani; Thioub, Bahoken, Capelle
We say: Montpellier HSC 2-0 Angers
Angers have not been renowned for high-scoring affairs early on in the campaign, but they should fancy their chances in this one. However, Montpellier are only looking up despite the loss of their veteran captain, so we are going for a comfortable home win for Der Zakarian's side this weekend.
Ben Knapton
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 Montpellier HSC win with a probability of 46.57%. A win for Angers had a probability of 26.89% and a draw had a probability of 26.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Montpellier HSC win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.27%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.02%) and 2-0 (8.82%). The likeliest Angers win was 0-1 (8.74%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.56%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 1.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Montpellier HSC would win this match.
