Saturday night features this upcoming clash between Saint-Etienne and Lille at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard with both sides still in search of gaining their first win of this new Ligue 1 season.
Saint-Etienne have been held to draws in both of their opening two matches of this new domestic top flight campaign but they’ve at least picked up points in stalemates with Lorient and Lens in 1-1 and 2-2 draws respectively.
Settling in nicely 👋#LOSC | #WelcomeGrbic pic.twitter.com/jG53zEiUGr— LOSC Lille EN (@LOSC_EN) August 19, 2021
Settling in nicely 👋#LOSC | #WelcomeGrbic pic.twitter.com/jG53zEiUGr
Saturday’s hosts have now failed to win any of their last four games in Ligue 1, one of which was a previous 0-0 draw away at Saturday’s visitors, Lille, towards the end of last season along with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at home to relegated Dijon.
The bigger picture also shows that Saint-Etienne have picked up just five wins out of their last 15 matches overall in the French top flight, only two of these being on home turf at their Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, and the hosts struggled at home last term, winning just three of their last 17 games in their own backyard.
Last season’s title-winners, Lille, have made a slow start to this new campaign as the visitors have picked up just one point from their opening two games of this new Ligue 1 season, thanks to an opening day 3-3 draw away from home at Metz.
However, a heavy 4-0 rout at home at the hands of Nice last weekend would have certainly come as a major shock to Lille and this should spur the visitors into producing a positive response away at Saint-Etienne on Saturday night.
That unexpected loss to Nice was Lille’s first defeat in nine matches overall in Ligue 1 though, so there’s certainly no need to press the panic button just yet, while results away from home last season were very impressive.
Lille suffered just the one defeat on their travels all season last term and indeed, ended their title-winning campaign with a 14-match unbeaten sequence which also included 12 wins as well.
In addition, Lille scored 2 goals or more in 10 of these last 14 away matches and they also scored 3 at Metz on the opening day of the season so it may not take long for the visitors to click into gear, starting with a result at Saint-Etienne on Saturday evening.