Lyon form a concern for Puel

The defending champions Lyon may remain on top of Ligue 1 but Claude Puel could not hide his concern after seeing his side's stuttering recent form.

The defending champions Lyon may remain on top of Ligue 1, but Claude Puel, the coach, could not hide his concern after seeing his side's stuttering recent form continue against Lorient. Puel's team have won just once in their past six games and slipped up again in letting Lorient cancel out an early lead. Ederson put Lyon ahead but Fabrice Abriel restored parity shortly before half-time. The result allowed Rennes, who beat Grenoble 1-0, to close the gap at the top to just two points. Puel was not a happy man after the match, saying: "We had to win tonight because we were playing at home. We'll have to recover those lost points."

Marseille, meanwhile, overcame terrible conditions to move up to fourth with a 2-0 victory over Auxerre. The pitch was visibly frozen prior to the game, prompting the Marseille president Pape Diouf to launch a remarkable outburst on television. He was seen telling the Auxerre president Jean-Claude Hamel: "We can't play on this pitch - if you want the three points, I give them to you."

But Marseille took the lead through one of the players he must have been most worried about, Mamadou Samassa, who passed a late fitness test on a knee injury to start, before Mathieu Valbuena added a second. Elsewhere, Toulouse had to wait until the 79th minute before putting nine-man Le Havre's challenge to bed. Etienne Didot scored the only goal. First-half goals by Mamadou Bagayoko and Aurelien Capoue guided 10-man Nantes to a 2-1 win over Monaco.

Damien Perquis scored the only goal against his old club as Sochaux edged out St Etienne. The win was not enough to lift Sochaux out of the drop zone, although they are now just a mere two points behind 17th-placed St Etienne. * With Agencies