Well that's Nice to see

After seven rounds of games in Ligue 1 someone other than Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is top of the table. It's not even Monaco either, or Lyon, or Marseille. Nope, instead it's the unexpected name of Nice that are sitting top of the tree.
From the outside looking in, Ligue 1 these past few years has been, well let's be honest, a bit of a bore when it comes to title races. PSG since their Qatar investment in 2011 have basically ran free with the title with the notable exception of 2014-15 which I blogged about a number of months ago. For a recap the 2014-15 Ligue 1 season was actually a three horse race up until April with Lyon and Marseille pushing PSG. In the end both chasing sides fell away in the final few games but it did provide some competition. Then came last season's procession.
Prior to PSG getting that Qatar investment the league was mightily competitive. Lyon's run of dominance ended with Bordeaux claiming the title in 2008-09 and after that no fewer than three different sides claimed the title in the successive three seasons. Then came the start of the current run of dominance of PSG.
Despite the runs of dominance by PSG in this decade and Lyon in the last, Ligue 1 still has produced more different league champions than all the other so called big leagues since the turn of the century. Eight to be precise.(England, Germany, Spain and Italy all have five different champions since 99-00).

Back to this season and well Nice are not one of those eight sides to have claimed at least one title since 2000. In fact Nice have only ever won the title four times and the last of those was in 1958-59. The rise of Nice for followers of French football shouldn't be that much of a shock considering they had a superb campaign last season. Sure they may have missed out on the prize of champions league football by two points but under Claude Puel they secured European football for the first time since 1997-98. Puel departed in the summer for Southampton and their star performer was the familiar name of Hatem Ben Arfa, he also left. Nice did however replace one troubled genius in Ben Arfa with another one this summer. Step forward one Mario Balotelli. Nice raised eyebrows when they signed the Italian from Liverpool with even Jaime Carragher saying that the free transfer was Nice paying over the odds. Balotelli made his debut in the home game against Marseille and he responded with two goals, a penalty and close range header. He added two more goals in Nice's 4-0 demolition of Monaco last Wednesday. That big victory over Monaco put Nice top of the league and the narrow 1-0 success away to Nancy on Sunday maintained their position at the top.

PSG's rather indifferent start has opened up the table in these early weeks of the season, with the champions already suffering two league defeats which is the same total they suffered last season in it's entirety. Although it is early days one does hope that they are challenged this season. Can it be Nice? well so far the signs are pretty good. They have the best defense in France after seven games with just four put past them and much will depend how they juggle their European commitments, which began two weeks ago with a defeat at home to struggling Schalke. Coach Lucien Favre has the side playing lovely stuff at times and with the experienced head of Dante at the back they have the foundations of a reliable defense that could see them have an even better season than last season.