PSG have gone on to win Ligue 1 eight times over the last ten years. With the money and the talent the squad possesses, it is likely that this outcome will happen again this season. This leaves the rest of the 17 teams to fight it out to see you is essentially the best of the rest. Writing of PSG, there are only three other teams that I could see achieving that runners-up spot come the end of the season and they are Marseille, Lyon, Monaco.

Marseille

Last season was an anomaly for Marseille after an uncharacteristic 8th place finish in the league, compared to their usual 2nd or 3rd place spots. They are the team with the most titles out of the three teams I think stand a chance to win this outright.

They were saved from a worse fate no doubt to the efforts of goalscoring machine Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who tallied 17 goals in Ligue 1 in the 23/24 season. Their next best league scorers only managed to find the back of the net 3 times apiece. With Aubameyang now in the Saudi League it puts Marseille in a bad spot.

Les Phocéens are looking towards Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah as his replacement but personally I don’t see him scoring anywhere near that many goals and there aren’t any other natural goalscorers in that squad. They will have to work extremely hard if they want to stand a chance in getting back into the UEFA Champions League spots.

For the fact that there is such a massive scoring problem, I don’t think they have the minerals to finish second this season and could even shockingly finish in the bottom half of the table.

Lyon

Starting the season with one of the worst start the side has ever seen, Lyon managed to claw their way back to a 6th place finish. There luck hasn’t been there over the years as they have not brought a trophy back since their French Super Cup win in the 12/13 season.

Similar to Marseille, Olympique Lyon were predominantly a one man team with captain centre forward Alexandre Lacazette racking up 19 goals domestically. The Frenchman shared second place in the Ligue 1 Golden Boot race with Johnathon David, the pair of them beaten unsurprisingly by global superstar Kylian Mbappé.

With a fresh start, Les Gones will aim to get their season going the right way and then continue from there. Lacazette is now at the age of 33 and could start showing signs of slowing down, something that could cost them that runners-up accomplishment.

On top of that, centreback Jake O’Brien has just departed to join Premier League side Everton. He was a key part of the defence and Lyon could relapse into their conceding horror show without him.

AS Monaco

Monaco were actually the team that achieved this outright last year and I believe that they will do the same this season as well. It has been eight years from the time when they last won the Ligue 1 title, and their squad has seen a massive transition since then.

Goals win games and winning games wins titles. They have the most balanced attacking output of the three teams with Wissam Ben Yedder, Takumi Minamino, Maghnes Akliouche, Folarin Balogun and Aleksandr Golovin all having a great season. Ben Yedder finished the season with 16 goals. He as always been a formidable goalscorer and I expect that to continue.

It isn’t just about the attack for Les Monégasques as midfielders Youssouf Fofana and Denis Zakaria showed performance good enough to make it into each of their respective countries Euro 2024 squad and earn some minutes in the tournament.

Speaking of Euro 2024 and Breel Embolo had a great tournament after missing most of the season for Monaco due to a cruciate ligament tear but he will be back all guns blazing from Matchday 1 til that final day.

What is the prediction?

I think AS Monaco will be Ligue 1 Winners Without PSG. They have the best all round team in my opinion and with them being runners-up last season, they have every chance to do it again. The teams that are historically in that conversation struggled a lot last year where Monaco took advantage, a repeat performance of that is my prediction.

What are the returns?

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