Lyon’s struggles continue but Puel still the man to turn things around

Claude Puel has been further backed by Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas despite the club sitting third from bottom of the Ligue 1 table.

Lyon had won the French league for seven straight seasons before Puel’s arrival in 2008 and have not won it since, although the former Monaco manager did lead them to a best ever Champions League performance last season when they reached the semi finals.

Lyon were expected to lay down a strong Ligue 1 challenge this season, particularly after completing the signings of Yoann Gourcuff, Jimmy Briand and Pape Diakhate, but this has not started convincingly.

Instead they have only won once in their opening seven games and are already 11 points adrift of table-toppers St Etienne.

However, Puel is still supported to get the best out of his expensively-assembled squad, despite chairman Aulas having to answer to a number of fans protesting for the boss to be sacked.

Aulas told L’Equipe: “The easiest solution would be to change things. But to change you have to find something better than what you already have, and I am not convinced we can do that.

“Stability is the only solution to improve the club. We won’t make decisions to appease the supporters or the newspapers.”

Lyon are 9/4 to recover from their poor start and win Ligue 1, but much will depend on whether Briand can begin to score goals at his new club and they can get their best 11 out on a regular basis.

The likes of Michel Bastos, Jean Makoun, Lopez Lisandro and Gourcuff have all missed games already this season.

Marseille are the 2/1 favourites to win Ligue One. See the full Ligue 1 winners betting market.