Six red cards, two refereeing cock-ups, a racism row and a broken nose; there was little Valentine's Day spirit in Ligue 1 this weekend. Instead of French kissing, the Glaswegian variety seemed more popular.
Yet love is certainly in the air at Paris Saint-Germain, who seem to have forgotten last month's boardroom warfare and have risen to second place after beating Saint-Etienne 2-1, although they were helped by the referee Laurent Duhamel's decision to only booked Stéphane Sessegnon for his 10th-minute head-butt on Blaise Matuidi and give the same punishment to Claude Makelele for a second-half two-footed tackle on Yoann Benalouane.
"Everyone saw the head-butt except the referee and his assistant, while Makelele also deserved a red card," fumed goalkeeper Jérémie Janot. "I have no comment to make about the refs," smiled Les Verts coach Alain Perrin, who is up before the disciplinary panel this week for his comments about Jean-Michel Aulas's influence on referees. "But if the ref didn't see anything, how come he gave a yellow card?" Duhamel, by the way, was the referee in charge when Wayne Rooney was accused of stamping on Aalborg's Kasper Risgard last December.
PSG won by a single goal for the ninth time this season and it's now their turn to talk down title chances, with Ludovic Giuly claiming that finishing in the top three alone would be extraordinary: "We need to show the kind of consistency that saw us beat Bordeaux [1-0 in Week 2] and Marseille [4-2 in week 10]." Makelele was asked after the game if he had been dreaming of the title in the shower, or when he lay in bed at night. "We're happy where we are, and we have to keep going like this," he replied, thankfully not revealing his innermost bedroom thoughts. "But I guess if we're still second and one point behind Lyon with three games left then maybe we'll start thinking about it."
The feeling persists that PSG are playing at their absolute limit and considering they have such a small squad, their lack of injuries has undoubtedly helped. While Sessegnon and Guillaume Hoarau have inspired them in various games this season, in recent weeks Jérémy Clément has been their star man, despite playing with a broken hand. He scored the winner after another in-form player, the 19-year-old defender Mamadou Sakho, had put them ahead.
Bordeaux, one point behind Lyon a fortnight ago, have fallen six points away after drawing 1-1 with Grenoble. Yoann Gourcuff was left on the bench (for only the fourth time in 34 games) after Raymond Domenech went back on his word and played him for the full 90 minutes in the midweek defeat to Argentina in Marseille. "Absolutely ridiculous," was Laurent Blanc's response while he wasn't the only one to leave the Vélodrome furious: Samir Nasri stayed on the bench throughout, as Domenech refused the midfielder a return to his home stadium.
Last week, Bordeaux's former heroes insisted that the team could win the title: Zinedine Zidane compared the side to the 1996 Uefa Cup finalists that he played for, while René Girard said: "This team has a soul and last week's loss to Marseille hasn't changed my opinion." This result might though, as Bordeaux only had Marouane Chamakh's goal to show for all their dominance, before Bostjan César equalised from an offside position. The referee Philippe Kalt later acknowledged his error, though it could have been worse as man of the match Sofiane Feghouli rattled the crossbar late on. "Our real rivals are not Lyon but Marseille, PSG and Lille," said defender Marc Planus, urging a reality-check.
John Mensah's eminently avoidable second-half dismissal overshadowed Lyon's routine 3-1 win over Le Havre. The Ghanaian had asked to be taken off at half-time after a fan had racially abused him, but his coach Claude Puel refused, and Mensah was booked twice in 18 minutes for an early bath. "I made a mistake as I should have taken him off, but I thought he had recovered his composure," said Puel. The fan was arrested (just before Mensah's first yellow card) and has confessed to shouting racist abuse, including monkey-chants, at Mensah. He can expect a severe punishment: last May, the Metz fan who insulted Valenciennes' Abdeslam Ouaddou was given a three-month suspended prison sentence and three-year stadium ban, while another Metz fan was handed a six-month prison sentence. In August, a Lille fan received a three-month prison sentence. "We are really upset for John and promise to get his confidence back," said Ederson, scorer of Lyon's opening goal.
Mensah has had a tough season. In October, he put his poor form down to "being haunted" by his arrest when police stopped him in his 4x4. "I was not speeding, I was not asked for my papers, I was just put in custody for several hours for no reason," he said. "The police thought my car was stolen and apologised to me. I'm a Christian so I forgave them, but I admit it was hard. They treated me like a criminal." His agent has advised him against going home to Ghana but Mensah, who on Tuesday claimed the fan "ruined his career", has refused to commit to Lyon beyond this season.
Elsewhere, Marseille and Toulouse remain one point behind PSG after narrow away wins. Auxerre had coach Jean Fernandez sent off for complaining about another red card, given to Thomas Kahlenberg for an elbow that left Lille's Mathieu Debuchy with a bloodied nose, and although Auxerre are appealing the dismissal, they will savour the 2-0 win that lifts them clear of danger. Not so safe are Le Mans, dropping quickly after Daniel Jeandupeux's job title was altered from sports director to coach. They lost 2-1 at home to Nice, Mahamane Traoré's last-minute-winner coming after Loïc Rémy and Grégory Cerdan (clearly no relation to the boxing champion Marcel) were dismissed for scuffling over picking the ball out of the net following Emerse Faé's Nice equaliser.
Attention this week turns to the Uefa Cup, where Saint-Etienne, PSG, Marseille and Bordeaux are all in action. With the latter three all chasing Ligue 1's second spot (or better), full-strength line-ups may not be the order of the day. The French league is desperate to provide a Uefa Cup winner to improve their rankings for European competitions, but the clubs' short-term thinking is clear: the further they broaden their horizons in Europe, the more domestic challenges will become blurred. All of which plays nicely into Lyon's hands, who have the not inconsiderable challenge of Barcelona to worry about in the Champions League. "They might start dropping points when their focus switches to Europe," said Gourcuff, somewhat unconvincingly.
Results, Week 23: Bordeaux 1-1 Grenoble, Auxerre 2-0 Lille, Rennes 1-1 Nancy, Le Mans 1-2 Nice, Caen 1-1 Lorient, Valenciennes 1-1 Nantes, PSG 2-1 Saint-Etienne, Lyon 3-1 Le Havre, Sochaux 1-2 Toulouse, Monaco 0-1 Marseille.
