There are very few sure things in football, but Paris Saint-Germain winning Ligue 1 is about as close to a sure thing as you can get ever since the Qatar Sports Investments takeover in 2011.
The 2024-25 Ligue 1 season could be different, though. After seven matches, PSG is in second place, two points behind league leaders AS Monaco. The principality doesn’t have the best casinos not on Gamstop, but they do have a squad of talented young players who could very well push Luis Enrique’s side all season. Who can forget the 2016-17 Monaco team, led by Kylian Mbappé, that finished first in the table ahead of PSG and OGC nice.
While Monaco is the current league leader, I believe PSG’s true challengers are just three points behind in third place. Olympique de Marseille has been playing very attractive and efficient football and spent a significant amount of money last summer to bolster its squad.
Led by Roberto De Zerbi, Marseille has been one of the most exciting football clubs in Europe, scoring sixteen goals in seven matches. Mason Greenwood was a controversial signing, but the forward has already scored five goals this season. Considering PSG’s porous attack, Greenwood could present a major problem when the two sides meet at the Orange Vélodrome on October 27.
Le Classique will be one of the most highly anticipated fixtures in all of football. Marseille will tell themselves that now is the time to take advantage of a “weakened” PSG side without Mbappé. Not only that, but PSG has struggled recently both in the UEFA Champions and domestically. The reigning French champions lost 2-0 to Arsenal in Europe and then returned to France for a hard-fought draw away at Nice.
Marseille is not competing in Europe this season, so all they have to concentrate on is Ligue 1 and how to defeat PSG. Le Classique is their Champions League final, and if Luis Enrique isn’t prepared, PSG could drop points and find itself in third place. That is an uphill battle that PSG doesn’t want to be in, with a young team trying to figure itself out while waiting for several key starters to return from injury.
I still predict that PSG will win Ligue 1, but it will be far from easy, and the race could come down to the last day. If PSG can qualify to the latter stages of the Champions League, that could further complicate the domestic race. It wasn’t that long ago that PSG finished just one point ahead of RC Lens in the table, we could be looking at a similar type of race this season.
