Ligue 1 returns with PSG sixth and Marseille 17th

Ligue 1 restarts tonight with Lens against Lyon, and the table behind that fixture is worth a minute of anyone's time.

Monaco are top on thirteen points. Lyon, tonight's visitors, are second and still unbeaten after five — three wins, two draws, and the best goal difference in the division at plus eight. Paris FC are third on the same points as Lyon, which is not a sentence that gets written often.

Paris Saint-Germain are sixth. Two wins, two draws and a defeat from five leaves them on eight points, five behind Monaco. They host Le Mans on Saturday evening.

Marseille are 17th. One win in five, three points, and only Le Havre below them. For a club that spent the summer being talked about as a title challenger, five matches have gone very badly indeed.

Lens themselves are 15th on four points, which makes tonight a harder night for them than for Lyon on paper. Saturday brings Lille against Le Havre, Brest against Angers, Lorient against Paris FC and PSG against Le Mans, with the rest of the round spread into Sunday.

Five matches is a fifth of nothing, and tables in October rarely look like tables in May. But Monaco leading, PSG sixth and Marseille 17th is a more interesting starting point than the one most people expected in August.