Ligue 1 Picks - 17/18 September 2011

Tristan Wootton hunts out the value in the weekend's Ligue 1 betting markets

Two players stole the show last weekend in Ligue 1, Joe Cole with a fabulous assist at Saint Etienne for his new club Lille and record signing Javier Pastore scoring a peach of a goal for PSG in front of his home fans. However, often the best betting picks are not in the high-profile matches, so we will be looking elsewhere for our bets this weekend.

Undoubtedly the highlight will be Lyon entertaining Marseille at the Stade Gerland on Sunday night, but I simply cannot justify having a bet on a match that could go either way, and famously finished 5-5 two years ago.

FC Lorient vs AS Saint Etienne

I will freely admit that Saint Etienne were one of my teams to follow at the start of the season, but suddenly everything seems to be going against them. Headline signing Steed Malbranque has gone AWOL, striker Gonzalo Bergessio left the club at the last minute for Catania and now Florent Sinama-Pongolle has fractured his hand.

With key defender Sylvain Marchal also out, all the signs are pointing towards a Lorient win.

Lorient are a solid mid-table side and they tend to do well in these potentially trappy encounters on their plastic pitch. Indeed, Saint Etienne are winless at Lorient in their previous five visits.

Bet 2 points on FC Lorient -1 at 37/20 with bet365.

Brest vs Montpellier

Brest is always a tough place to visit, especially after a trip across the whole length of France, and Montpellier know that Les Brestois will be highly-motivated to play up to their best against the league leaders in front of their passionate home crowd.

Montpellier dominated Nice last weekend, but Nice could have easily grabbed a point out of the encounter. They have a water-tight defence with Yanga-Mbiwa holding the fort at the back, but I fancy that Brest could grab a point against Montpellier, if not a morale-boosting win. By backing them at '0' on the Asian Handicap you will get your stake back if the match ends in a draw, like so many of Brest's home matches.

Brest have had to play their last three matches away from home and I expect them to be resilient this weekend.

Bet 1 point on Brest 0 at 37/40 with bet365.