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Ligue 1 Betting: Canary boss ready to fly the net

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After one point from a possible nine the Nantes boss will be emptying his drawers imminently, says James Eastham.

Three games gone - and one manager has already been shown the door. Well, nearly - Nantes coach Michel Der Zakarian looks almost certain to be on his way out after picking up just one point from three games. The Canaries' 2-0 defeat at Bordeaux in Sunday night's 'Derby de l'Atlantique' was the last straw for Nantes' ferociously ambitious president Waldemir Kita.

"Something's not working. We obviously can't continue like this," said Kita. "We'll have to make changes otherwise we'll be heading for catastrophe. I'm the one to blame. I made a huge mistake [by keeping Der Zakarian] and I'm furious with myself."

Kita has lined up former ex-Pompey boss Alain Perrin, who led Lyon to their first domestic league and cup double last season. The pair met on Monday night - a pretty clear signal for Der Zakarian to start emptying his drawers. If he takes over, Perrin will have a job on his hands. Nantes' full-backs are poor, centre-halves sluggish and goalkeeper Tony Heurtebis one of Ligue 1's most fragile. Ivan Klasnic (two goals in 97 minutes at Euro 2008) and Claudiu Keseru have shown promise in attack but midfield guile is lacking, despite the presence of athletic Senegal international Guiranne N'Daw, who scored a 45-yard lob at Marseille last season. It's a safe bet Perrin won't be winning the double this year.

At Stade Nungesser on Saturday night, Valenciennes played for 90 minutes despite worrying about team-mate David Sommeil, who suffered a heart attack in training last Wednesday and remains seriously ill in hospital.

Three different strikers - ex-Nantes man Gregory Pujol, Johan Audel and Luigi Pieroni, top scorer in Belgium in 2004 - got on the scoresheet, thereby revealing Valenciennes' particular strength: Add former Rangers striker Filip Sebo, a fourth option up front, and you have the sort of competition for places that means coach Antoine Kombouare can rotate his squad and make changes during games to ensure a decent chance of finding the target.

Last week we recommended Caen's home games for consideration in the over 2.5 goals market. Add Valenciennes to your list. [2.4] was available against Lorient, and similar good value will exist in future.

Not that it was a high-scoring weekend in Ligue 1, with 18 goals across 10 fixtures. Nine fixtures, since Nancy-Toulouse finished 0-0 . The scoreline was no surprise - Nancy boss Pablo Correa is the most tactically negative in Ligue 1. The Uruguayan, who played alongside Tony Cascarino for the club in the 1990s, somehow won France Football's top coach award last year, but excels in employing the safety-first,-middle-and-last tactics that cripple the French game. Both Nancy's home game have finished goalless this season - so consider a combination of 0-0, 0-1 and 1-0 in the correct-score market in forthcoming matches.

Betfairians are wise to Nancy's low-scoring habits, since under 2.5 goals usually trades around [1.57]. Eleven of Nancy's remaining 17 home games would need fewer than three goals to turn a profit at those odds, a plausible outcome since 13 of 19 games were 'under' last season.

An implausible outcome occurred at Stade de la Route de Lorient on Sunday evening, where Rennes produced an injury-time comeback to defeat Lille 2-1. One-time Liverpool midfielder Bruno Cheyrou equalised on 91 minutes, with striker Moussa Sow fulfilling the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer role by adding a 94th-minute winner. The result leaves Lille, whose lack of strikers meant they played a 4-6-0 formation, bottom with one point

Finally, over at Stade de Gerland on Saturday night, Lyon ended Grenoble's brief but thrilling reign at the top of Ligue 1. Jean Makoun and Karim Benzema's first-half goals made it a stroll for Lyon, who join Marseille at the top on seven points. Grenoble will never head the table again - but six points already on the board means Bosnian boss Mecha Bazdarevic has the sort of job security Der Zakarian can only dream of.

Results

Le Havre 0-1 Marseille
Le Mans 1-0 St Etienne
Lyon 2-0 Grenoble
Monaco 1-1 Caen
Nancy 0-0 Toulouse
Sochaux 1-1 PSG
Valenciennes 3-1 Lorient
Auxerre 0-1 Nice
Bordeaux 2-0 Nantes
Rennes 2-1 Lille