Two teams separated by 13 places and 21 points in the Ligue 1 table prepare to do battle at the Stade de la Beaujoire on Sunday as Nantes play host to Monaco.
Raymond Domenech is still searching for his first triumph with Les Canaris, but in contrast, Monaco are on a four-game winning run as they look to mount a title charge in the second half of the campaign.
Match preview
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At the very least, Domenech has instilled consistency within a below-par Nantes side, but his team's resolve was broken by an improving Metz outfit in a 2-0 defeat last Saturday.
Aaron Leya Iseka and Farid Boulaya got the goals as Nantes' run of stalemates came to an abrupt end, and Les Canaris are now without a win in their last 12 league outings - the worst run in Ligue 1 at this moment in time.
Draws with Montpellier, Rennes and Lens serve as proof that Domenech has helped to steady the ship, but unless the veteran Frenchman can soon steer Nantes to their first victory since November 8, Les Canaris will quickly become embroiled in a relegation dogfight.
As things stand, 17th-placed Nantes are three points above Dijon, Lorient and Nimes, but the latter two do have games in hand and - unlike Domenech's men - have managed to take maximum points from a fixture since the turn of the year.
However, Nantes can take comfort in the fact that only one of their last six home matches has ended in defeat, although their last four have ended with the points shared and October's victory over Brest was their most recent win on familiar territory.
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While Nantes cannot seem to win, Monaco cannot seem to stop winning, as Niko Kovac's men made it four in a row with a 3-1 triumph over fellow powerhouses Marseille last time out.
Les Olympiens are in a rut at the moment, but Monaco did not take their foot of the gas for a second despite going behind through Nemanja Radonjic's opener, as Guillermo Maripan, Aurelien Tchouameni and Stevan Jovetic responded for Les Monegasques.
No other team in the league has taken 12 points from the last 12 on offer, and Monaco now find themselves just six points adrift of Paris Saint-Germain as one of the most open title races in recent Ligue 1 history hots up.
Furthermore, Kovac has also witnessed his side come out on top in their last three games away from home, and a fourth away triumph on the trot would mark the first time that they have achieved such a feat since their triumphant 2016-17 campaign.
Monaco are yet to share the spoils on the road this season and are not expected to do so here, as they have taken maximum points from their last five meetings with Nantes, including a 2-1 win earlier in the season.
Nantes Ligue 1 form: DLDDDL
Monaco Ligue 1 form: WDWWWW
Team News
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Nantes have very few injury concerns to worry about at the minute, with Roli Pereira de Sa and Anthony Limbombe the only players ruled out of this game.
With speculation surrounding a potential move to Marseille gathering pace, highly-rated Canaris midfielder Imran Louza did not feature whatsoever against Metz and may not pull on the yellow jersey here either.
Mehdi Abeid has also been tipped to head for Dubai with Al-Nasr, so a midfield pairing of Pedro Chirivella and Abdoulaye Toure could be on the cards this weekend.
Monaco will have to make do without Ruben Aguilar as he serves a suspension for an accumulation of bookings, while Cesc Fabregas and Gelson Martins - the latter of whom has recently gone under the knife - remain in the treatment room.
Aleksandr Golovin must be wondering what else he has to do to earn a start after bagging two assists off the bench against Marseille, but the 24-year-old should feature from the off here in place of the banned Aguilar.
Jovetic's thunderous free kick last Saturday was easily one of the goals of the year so far, but Wissam Ben Yedder and Kevin Volland's places up top are safe.
Nantes possible starting lineup:
Lafont; Corchia, Pallois, Girotto, Traore; Coco, Toure, Chirivella, Blas; Kolo Muani, Coulibaly
Monaco possible starting lineup:
Lecomte; Sidibe, Maripan, Badiashile, Henrique; Diop, Tchouameni, Fofana, Golovin; Ben Yedder, Volland
We say: Nantes 1-3 Monaco
Monaco's defence is there to be broken down, and we would not put it past Nantes to get on the scoresheet despite the ongoing rumours surrounding a number of their first-team players. However, the visitors' attacking prowess is proving too difficult for any team to handle right now, and we expect Les Monegasques to score at least three goals for the fifth match in a row during a comfortable win this weekend.
Top betting tip
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 Monaco win with a probability of 50.69%. A draw had a probability of 24.8% and a win for Nantes had a probability of 24.55%.
The most likely scoreline for a Monaco win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.22%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.55%) and 0-2 (9.1%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.77%), while for a Nantes win it was 1-0 (7.26%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Monaco would win this match.
