- 1 Auxerre vs Le Mans: Still’s side host a promoted club fresh from a 3-0 home beating
- 2 Auxerre: Archer’s four goals in five games and two September wins at home
- 3 Le Mans: Mafouta’s goals, Bourabaa’s ankle and no away win yet
- 4 Free Ligue 1 Prediction: Auxerre vs Le Mans
- 5 About our free predictions
- 6 No commitment from us
- 7 Information changes
- 8 Your responsibility
- 9 Responsible gambling
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- 11 About visuals
Auxerre vs Le Mans: Still’s side host a promoted club fresh from a 3-0 home beating 
Le Mans lost 3-0 at home to Toulouse on 16 October, and it was the first time they’d been beaten at their own ground since coming up from Ligue 2. Russel-Rowe scored a minute after the restart, Donnum added a second just before the hour and Tengstedt finished it on 87 minutes.
Patrick Videira’s side now go to Auxerre on Sunday, kick-off 16:15 UK time at the Stade de l’Abbe-Deschamps. They’re 16th with six points from seven games: one win, three draws and three defeats, with ten goals scored and 15 conceded.
The table is already tight at the bottom. Le Havre are last on two points and Troyes 17th on four, so Le Mans sit two points above the automatic places with a game against a side that has lost four of its seven.
Auxerre are 12th on nine points. All of them have come from wins, three of them, with four defeats and no draws, and the goal record of 11 for and 17 against shows how open their games have been.
They come into this one off their best away result of the season. Danny Namaso scored twice and Faivre added a third in a 3-1 win at Le Havre last Sunday, a week after a 4-1 defeat at Rennes.
The clubs haven’t met since January 2020, when Auxerre won 1-0 at Le Mans in Ligue 2. Le Mans are winless in their last three against Auxerre, and their last win in the fixture came in August 2012, also in the second tier.
Auxerre are 2.05 to win, the draw is 3.40 and Le Mans are 3.70. I’ll take the home side at that price.
Auxerre: Archer’s four goals in five games and two September wins at home 
Will Still’s side beat Nice 1-0 and Brest 2-1 at the Abbe-Deschamps in September. Those two results and the win at Le Havre are the whole of Auxerre’s league points this season.
The defeats have been heavy. Auxerre lost 3-1 at Lyon, 3-1 to Angers and 4-1 at Rennes, which is how a side with three wins has a goal difference of minus six.
Cameron Archer is the reason they score. The striker, on loan from Southampton, has four goals in five games and is the club’s top scorer. Namaso has three of his own, including a penalty, after his double at Le Havre.
Still is short at the back and on the flanks. Telli Siwe and Marvin Senaya won’t be back until after the November international break, Bryan Okoh has a knee injury that could keep him out until the New Year, and Sekou Fofana has a groin problem and is yet to make his debut.
The expected back three is Makosso, Tuanzebe and Akpa, with Sy and Oppegard as wing-backs and Nardi in goal. Faivre and Namaso, who scored all three at Le Havre, should start either side of Archer.
Last season Auxerre avoided the relegation play-off by two points. A home win on Sunday would take them to 12 points and six clear of Le Mans.
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Le Mans: Mafouta’s goals, Bourabaa’s ankle and no away win yet 
Videira’s side were hard to beat at home in September. They drew 2-2 with Lens on 13 September and beat Lorient 2-1 six days later, and until the Toulouse game nobody had won at their ground.
The Toulouse defeat turned after the break. The game was goalless at half-time, and all three goals came in the second half, the first of them a minute after the restart.
Away from home they’ve taken one point. They drew 1-1 at Nice on 5 September, lost 3-2 at Rennes and lost 3-1 at PSG on 10 October.
Louis Mafouta has four goals in seven league appearances, one of them a penalty, and he’s the player Auxerre’s back three will have to watch. He’s expected to start up front alongside Gueye.
The bigger loss is Adil Bourabaa. He’s scored three goals and is out until January with an ankle injury, and Erwan Colas and Martin Rossignol are also unavailable.
The likely lineup has Kocik in goal behind a back three of Sidibe, Yohou and Boisse, with Buades and Larouci as the wide players. Their seven league games have produced 25 goals, ten for and 15 against.
Le Mans haven’t won in their last three games against Auxerre. Before the January 2020 defeat, they’d lost 2-0 at the Abbe-Deschamps in August 2019.
Probable lineup Auxerre: Nardi; Makosso, Tuanzebe, Akpa; Sy, Ahamada, Danois, Oppegard; Faivre, Namaso, Archer
Probable lineup Le Mans: Kocik; Sidibe, Yohou, Boisse; Buades, Traore, Bretelle, Vercruysse, Larouci; Gueye, Mafouta
Free Ligue 1 Prediction: Auxerre vs Le Mans
Our prediction: Auxerre to win @ 2.05
I’d back Auxerre at 2.05. They beat Nice and Brest at the Abbe-Deschamps in September, they’ve just won at Le Havre with Namaso scoring twice, and Archer has four goals in five appearances.
The argument against is Auxerre’s defence. They’ve conceded 17 in seven games, and Le Mans scored at Rennes, Nice and PSG and twice in each of their home games against Lens and Lorient, with Mafouta on four goals.
Le Mans have one point from three away games, though, and they’ve lost Bourabaa until January. Auxerre have beaten them in the last two meetings without conceding, and I’d expect the home side to score at least twice against a team that has let in 15.
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