This past weekend, the 2015 2016 French Ligue 1 season officially closed out its first month. With four games on the books (and 34 still to play), it's a good time to look back on the first stage of the season and assess what went down. Which football clubs are in good shape? Which soccer squads are in trouble? Should we expect a fourth straight title for Paris Saint Germain? Read on for a rundown of the first month of Ligue 1 play 2015 featuring the answers to these questions and others.
Paris Saint Germain Steal the Show
Is anyone even surprised that Paris Saint Germain are on top of the Ligue 1 table after the first month of play? Not only are the Parisians coming off three consecutive French national soccer titles, and not only are they coming off a season where they won four French football trophies, but PSG also had a fruitful summer transfer season.
Despite rumors that Zlatan Ibrahmovic-Paris Saint Germain's star striker over the past three seasons-might be headed elsewhere, no such transfer deal emerged. Instead, the Parisians picked up Angel di Maria from Manchester United-reportedly for £15 million less than what United paid to bring the Argentine winger to England just last season.
Di Maria and Ibrahimovic were both sidelined with injuries for the first three weeks of the season, but the Parisians did just fine without them, beating Lille, Gazalec Ajaccio, and Montpellier with clean sheets across the board.
When Di Maria and Ibrahimovic returned in week four, for an away game at Monaco, PSG looked even stronger, winning the match 3-0. Both Angel and Zlatan provided assists in the match, but it was Edinson Cavani who earned the spotlight, scoring a brace in the second half to give the French champions a win. It will be interesting to watch how these three soccer stars play off of one another this season.
Lyon, Monaco, Marseille, and Saint Etienne: Playing Catch Up
While Paris Saint Germain have leaped right back to the top of the Ligue 1 table-with four wins, seven goals for, and zero goals against-the teams that most challenged them for the 2014 2015 title are nowhere to be seen near the top of the table.
Indeed, of last year's top five-which included PSG, Lyon, Monaco, Marseille, and Saint Etienne-only Paris and Lyon are holding strong in the top five this time. Lyon have struggled slightly, drawing 0-0 with Lorient in week one, winning a minor victory against Guingamp (1-0) in week two, and losing 1-2 to Reims in week three before finally scoring a big victory (4-0, at Caen) on August 29th.
The bright spot of Lyon's season so far has been midfielder Nabil Fekir, who scored three of the goals and assisted the 
fourth in the Caen match. He's certainly a player to watch for the remainder of the French football season.
Saint Etienne are in a similar boat, though they've bounced back from a bad start (a loss against Toulouse and a draw with Bordeaux) thanks to a pair of wins against Lorient and Bastia, respectively. Monaco, meanwhile, have tumbled from their promising third place finish in 2014 2015 to a 13th place berth at the end of the 2015 2016 campaign's first month. A win against Nice on opening weekend remains their only positive outcome of the season so far.
Finally, Olympique Marseille are scraping the bottom of the barrel at 15th place, having lost three of their first four fixtures. A massive 6-0 win against Troyes (the biggest victory of the season so far, for the entire league) is the only thing keeping Marseille alive at this point.
Unexpected Contenders
So which teams are occupying the top spots? Not the usual suspects, that's for sure. Between PSG and Lyon, the other three top five spots are currently occupied by Reims (three wins, one loss), Rennes, (three wins, one loss), and Angers (two wins, two draws, zero losses). Last season, Reims finished 15th , Rennes ended up 9th, and Angers weren't even competing in the top flight of French football. (They won promotion after finishing third in the Ligue 2.)
Needless to say, the first month of the French Ligue 1 season has provided its fair share of surprises. In fact, other than Paris Saint Germain's return to the top of the table, very little about the season has been predictable or expected so far. Do you think that Rennes and Reims are destined to have breakout seasons this year, or are their solid starts just flukes? Pick up a PSG jersey 2015 2016 from Soccer Box, then connect with us on social media to share your thoughts. Find us today, on multiple networks including Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.
