Paris Saint-Germain will be looking to cement their position atop the Ligue 1 rankings when the champions travel to Nantes for Saturday's top-flight encounter.
While the visitors are in the midst of an unrelenting fixture schedule, Nantes have had two weeks off since their last match owing to the postponement of last weekend's proposed meeting with Lens.
Match preview
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Nantes have been afflicted with coronavirus cases themselves over the past few days, but with Lens recording double figures in positive tests before their showdown with Les Canaris, the proposed fixture in gameweek eight had to be called off.
While Christian Gourcuff's men have now had an extra week off to prepare for the visit of the champions, Nantes will be forced to field a weakened team due to a number of positive cases in the home camp, but Les Canaris will be boosted by their triumph over Brest the last time they took to the pitch.
Indeed, Les Canaris ended a run of four games without a win as they cruised to a 3-1 victory over Brest in the seventh round of fixtures, with Randal Kolo Muani, Ludovic Blas and Abdoul Kader Bamba all notching up goals against Les Pirates to give Nantes just their second win of the season.
As things stand, Gourcuff's side currently occupy 15th spot in the fledgling table having played a game fewer than most of their rivals, but their chances of rising any higher up the rankings are extremely slim against a PSG side buoyed by a terrific set of recent results in the French top flight.
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PSG have certainly not had much better luck on the absentee front either, but Thomas Tuchel's men made no mistake in midweek as they cruised to a 2-0 victory over Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League.
Moise Kean continued his impressive streak with a double on the night as PSG picked up their first European victory of the season, and the Ligue 1 champions are showing no signs of complacency in the league despite a hectic run-in before the international break.
PSG needed to restore some confidence amongst themselves following defeat to Manchester United, and Tuchel's men did just that with a routine 4-0 win over Dijon prior to the midweek round of Champions League fixtures, with the capital outfit now searching for their seventh win on the bounce in the top flight.
The champions now sit in their familiar position at the top of the table, but Tuchel's side are only ahead of Lille on goal difference heading into gameweek nine, and Les Dogues are ready to pounce should PSG suffer an unexpected slip-up at the Stade de la Beaujoire this weekend.
Nantes managed to overcome PSG as recently as 2019 - their first victory over the champions since 2004 - but Tuchel's men did the double over Nantes with 2-0 and 2-1 triumphs last season.
Nantes Ligue 1 form: WLDLLW
Paris Saint-Germain Ligue 1 form: WWWWWW
Paris Saint-Germain form (all competitions): WWWLWW
Team News
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A quartet of Nantes players in Fabio, Andrei Girotto, Kalifa Coulibaly and Sebastien Corchia have all contracted coronavirus in recent days, ruling all four out of Saturday's game.
The hosts are therefore set for an overhaul in defence with Nicolas Pallois also missing out due to a suspension, with Dennis Appiah and Thomas Basila in line for starts.
Bamba and Moses Simon will be holding out for recalls to the first XI as well, while Abdoulaye Toure could come back into the fold in midfield.
As for the visitors, Neymar lasted just 26 minutes of Wednesday's victory before being forced off with an adductor injury, and Tuchel admitted that the Brazilian could be sidelined for the next few games.
Angel Di Maria is serving the final game of his four-match suspension, while Marco Verratti, Mauro Icardi, Leandro Paredes, Julian Draxler and Juan Bernat are all unavailable through injury.
The absences of Neymar and Di Maria should see Pablo Sarabia be recalled to the starting lineup, while Idrissa Gueye made his return from injury against Istanbul Basaksehir and could come back into the first XI as well.
Nantes possible starting lineup:
Lafont; Appiah, Castelletto, Basila, Traore; Toure, Abeid; Louza, Blas, Simon; Kolo Muani
Paris Saint-Germain possible starting lineup:
Navas; Florenzi, Kimpembe, Marquinhos, Bakker; Gueye, Herrera, Rafinha; Sarabia, Kean, Mbappe
We say: Nantes 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain
With Nantes taking to the field for the first time in a fortnight, and PSG having to juggle their title defence with a daunting Champions League group, the hosts would have felt confident about getting something from this game before coronavirus hit. Tuchel must keep next week's clash with RB Leipzig in mind, but PSG are steamrolling their way through Ligue 1 as per usual and we cannot see any other result than a straightforward win for the champions on Saturday.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Away Win:data
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 Paris Saint-Germain win with a probability of 69.14%. A draw had a probability of 17.3% and a win for Nantes had a probability of 13.53%.
The most likely scoreline for a Paris Saint-Germain win was 0-2 with a probability of 9.68%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.56%) and 0-1 (7.97%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.87%), while for a Nantes win it was 2-1 (3.88%). The actual scoreline of 0-3 was predicted with a 7.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Paris Saint-Germain would win this match.
