Brest take on Reims in Ligue 1 on Sunday with the hosts looking for a fourth win in five matches.
Reims, meanwhile, are languishing in the bottom three having failed to win any of their last four matches.
Match preview
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Indeed, Brest are flying high in the form table at present, with three wins in their last four matches lifting them to 12th in the table overall.
Olivier Dall'Aglio's side suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Bordeaux last weekend, though, with former Newcastle United winger Hatem Ben Arfa's late strike enough to earn Bordeaux three points, taking them above Brest in the process.
However, having been 14th in their first season back in the top-flight since the 2012-13 campaign last term before all French football was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has still been a very good start to Brest's season.
With six points separating themselves and their forthcoming opponents in the bottom three, Dall'Aglio will be urging his side to put some clear daylight between themselves and the danger zone.
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Having qualified for European football for the first time in 57 years by virtue of being sixth in the table prior to the curtailment of last season, it has been quite the comedown this time around for Reims.
Dumped out of the Europa League at the third qualifying stage by Hungarian side Fehervar, David Guion's side have sunk to the bottom three in recent weeks after a winless run of four matches.
Indeed, an over-reliance on Boulaye Dia has come to the fore in recent weeks, with Guion's side failing to score in their last three matches, including in last weekend's 0-0 draw against Nice.
The French forward has registered an impressive tally of eight league goals in his 10 starts, but Ba is the only Reims player to have more than one goal to his name in Ligue 1 this season. Guion must find a way for all of his side to start chipping in, otherwise moving out of the relegation zone is going to prove a difficult task.
Brest Ligue 1 form: LLWWWL
Reims Ligue 1 form: WWDLLD
Team News
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Brest remain without central defender Denys Bain, who is still recovering from his cruciate ligament rupture.
Otherwise, Dall'Aglio appears to have a clean bill of health to choose from, with forward Irvin Cardona looking to return to goalscoring ways having blanked in the defeat at Bordeaux after scoring in all three of Brest's prior successive victories.
Reims are struggling more on the injury front, with Anastasios Donis (muscle), Ghislain Konan (back) and Arber Zeneli (muscle) all unavailable for the trip to Brest.
After scoring four times in a crazy draw at Lens last month, Guion will be hoping his side can rediscover their goalscoring touch having blanked in the last three matches.
Brest possible starting lineup:
Larsonneur; Pierre-Gabriel, Chardonnet, Duverne, Perraud; Honorat, Belkebla, Lasne, Faivre; Mounie, Cardona
Reims possible starting lineup:
Rajkovic; Foket, Faes, Abdelhamid, Konan; Munetsi, Berisha; Cafaro, Zeneli, Doumbia; Ba
We say: Brest 2-1 Reims
We expect a closely fought affair between two evenly matched sides, but Brest look to have more players capable of scoring goals at present, which could give them the edge.
Indeed, Dall'Aglio's side have taken 12 points from six home games this season, so should have enough to get the job done.
Top betting tip
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 Brest win with a probability of 40.2%. A win for Reims had a probability of 34.44% and a draw had a probability of 25.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Brest win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.05%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.69%) and 2-0 (6.56%). The likeliest Reims win was 0-1 (8.26%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.98%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with an 8.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Brest would win this match.
