how weak competition put PSG on the royal road to another title

Well helped by its opponents, the capital club is surely playing its last major meeting of the season on Sunday, in Marseille.

And 12? Ligue 1 will only close on May 18, but the identity of the next French champion already seems to be known. Paris Saint-Germain is on a royal road to a third consecutive coronation. The capital club is 12 points ahead of its closest pursuer, the astonishing Stade Brestois, with only eight games remaining. It is without the slightest suspense in its race towards the title that PSG travels to Marseille for the Classic on Sunday.

Never has a team with such a lead after 26 days or 8 days from the end of the season failed to be crowned champion of France. Luis Enrique may have declared that he did not think the title was over after the victory against Nantes in mid-February, but what was a near certainty is now obvious. The same evening, his counterpart Jocelyn Gourvennec did not speak in the language of wood: “PSG is going to be champion, the only thing is to know when”.

All that’s missing is the coronation date

By seeing the capital club hover over the debates, a form of weariness has set in in French football. It must be said that seeing him at least 12 points ahead after 26 days is not a first. PSG had done at least as well at this stage of the competition in five of its nine titles gleaned under Qatari governance (in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022). But this season, Paris is not particularly crushing the competition.

Compared to the passing times of his last titles, his total of 59 points after 26 matches is the lowest at this stage since 2014-2015. Behind the capital club, the Brest runner-up has 47 points, only Monaco has done worse as 2nd at this stage over the 10 previous seasons (46 points). Enough to further fuel the debate on the lack of competition offered to the Parisian giant since the start of 2024.

“Obviously, if we had an opponent closer to us, we would be better prepared. We have to build motivation.”

Luis Enrique, PSG coach

at a press conference on February 24

“The problem is the adversity which is not there and which is not good enough to push PSG to its limits”, ex-PSG player Jérôme Rothen said in his show on RMC in mid-January. However, the question did not arise during the first three months of the season. Paris had to wait until November 11 to take control of the championship by doubling the Nice sensation.

Brest almost runner-up in spite of himself

At mid-season, just before the winter break, OGC Nice was only five points behind. Prime Video then asked Kylian Mbappé if the Aiglons would “bother” PSG in the title race. “You think? I don’t think so.”. The tricolor star’s dry response then made the rounds on social networks, before the future proved him right. Since this interview, a gulf has been created between the two teams, largely because of Nice’s bad luck (8 points taken out of 27 possible since January).

This outage did not allow the emergence of a new direct adversary. Brest found itself propelled into the upper echelons barely a year after fighting to stay in the elite. The competitors identified at the start of the season have all disappointed. Last season’s brilliant runners-up, Lens, got off to a late start and have been less impressive since the departures of Seko Fofana and Loïs Openda last summer. Marseille has already seen four coaches succeed one another on its bench. As for Monaco and Lille, they are doing slightly worse than last season at the same stage.

None of these teams took advantage of PSG’s slow trot, held in check three times in a row between the end of February and mid-March. Certainly often slowed down by draws (8) and shaken up in this season supposed to be that of reconstruction, the capital club has so far only experienced one defeat in Ligue 1, against Nice in September.

Behind the Classic, he will only have one match left to play against a team in the current first part of the table (Nice, in fact, on May 3). If he avoids an affront at the Vélodrome on Sunday, the last important L1 meeting will have passed and he will be able to concentrate all his forces on the Champions League campaign and the Coupe de France.