Very few people, if anyone, tipped Lens to challenge for the Ligue 1 title. Pierre Sage guided them to top spot heading into the winter break, but can he keep them there?
Paris Saint-Germain’s dominance in recent times has somewhat defined Ligue 1. They have won 11 of the last 13 titles, including each of the last four, and after Luis Enrique’s side also stormed to their first ever Champions League success last season, the assumption was that would continue.
However, anyone who hadn’t been paying much attention to the top flight in France this season may have raised a quizzical eyebrow or perhaps even fallen off their chair when they saw that, as Ligue 1 entered its mid-season winter break, the table is led by Lens.
Eleven months ago, Pierre Sage was sacked as manager by his hometown club Lyon. After 16 games of this season, his Lens side are top.
It could have been so different prior to his appointment in June, with Sage seemingly having his eyes on jobs in England.
In an interview with The Athletic in April, Sage said: “I’m now ready for a new project… My dream is to work in England because I think it’s the best country and the best league. The Championship is a good league too.
“My second job will perhaps be the most important. I think it was José Mourinho who said you become a coach when you are fired the first time.”
He may not have got his move to England, but those sage words [pun fully intended] of Mourinho appear even more prescient now, with Sage doing a phenomenal job since arriving at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in the summer.
Lens have won just one Ligue 1 title in their history, back in 1997-98 when they pipped Metz on goal difference.
It will be a big ask for them to hold off PSG in the second half of the season – they are just a point ahead after 16 games – but without being too patronising, that they even reached the winter break with an advantage is an achievement worth shouting about.
Lens finished last season in eighth place, without showing any signs of what was to come in 2025-26. However, they have won 12 of their 16 league games (D1 L3) and boast the best defensive record in Ligue 1 this season (13 goals conceded).
Lens went into the winter break having won their last seven matches across all competitions, equalling the club’s longest streak in the past 60 years (in March-April 1998 and April-June 2023).
Part of that run included an impressive 4-1 win at Monaco, while their most recent league outing was a 2-0 home win over Nice.
This all seemed a long way off when Sage made a far-from-ideal start, not only losing his first game 1-0 at home, but doing so at the hands of his former employers, Lyon.
They won their next two games, though, beating Le Havre and Brest, before travelling to the capital to take on the champions.
Lens were beaten 2-0 at PSG, but as they did in response to the Lyon defeat, they bounced back impressively. Sage’s men produced a statement 3-0 win over Lille after that, as well as sealing a huge 2-1 victory against Marseille a month later.
After a 2-1 win at Angers on 30 November, Lens ended the day top of Ligue 1 for the first time since Matchday 3 of the 2004-05 season. They had not been top this late into a season since 2001-02, when they were in first place at the end of MD33.
What makes Lens’ success even more impressive is that it has been a particularly competitive season at the top of Ligue 1. Four teams have at least 32 points after 16 matches (Lens, PSG, Marseille and Lille), something that had previously only happened twice at this stage of a campaign in the competition’s history (1953-54 – adjusting to three points for a win – and 2017-18).
Lens have had to rebuild in 2025. In the January transfer window, they lost centre-backs Abdukodir Khusanov and Kevin Danso to the Premier League, while they also sold goalkeeper Brice Samba to Rennes. In the summer, they parted ways with key figures Neil El Aynaoui and Andy Diouf, both of whom left for Serie A.
The club backed Sage with incomings, though. Lens signed 14 players in the summer, and a number of them have worked out very well indeed.
Midfielder Mamadou Sangaré joined from Rapid Vienna and has been one of the standout players in France this season. He has made the most tackles (50) and won possession (106) more often than any other player in Ligue 1. As you can see from the map below, he plays a big role in winning the ball back for Lens between both penalty areas.
Sangaré is currently at the Africa Cup of Nations with Mali, where he is also shining. He has won 75% of his duels at the 2025 AFCON (30/40). Of players to contest at least 40 in a single edition, it is the highest duel success rate of any midfielder on record in the competition (since 2010).
As a result of being away at the tournament in Morocco, Sangaré is likely to miss Lens’ first few games after the winter break. Sage will hope others can fill what will be a significant hole in midfield.
Young goalkeeper Robin Risser joined from Strasbourg and has excelled at his new club. Only Angers’ Hervé Koffi (79.5%), on loan from Lens, has a better save percentage than his 78%. According to Opta’s expected goals on target (xGOT) model, Risser should have conceded 19.3 goals this season but has only seen 13 get past him, meaning he has in theory prevented 6.3 goals.
Samson Baidoo also joined from the Austrian league. The former Salzburg centre-back has helped Lens boast the sturdiest defence in Ligue 1, but as well as talented youngsters like Sangaré and Baidoo, they also signed experience, which has paid off.
Florian Thauvin signed from Udinese, and the former Marseille and Newcastle man has provided goals and creativity. The 32-year-old has played in all 16 league games, starting 15 of them, and has five goals and two assists to his name.
Matthieu Udol has been an inspired acquisition from Metz, starting every game and shining at left wing-back. The 29-year-old has five assists in Ligue 1 this season; only PSG’s Vitinha (6) has more, while another experienced player already at Lens, 32-year-old Adrien Thomasson, has four.
Only Paris FC’s Ilan Kebbal (40) has created more chances in Ligue 1 than Thomasson (38), but no-one has created more ‘big chances’ than Udol (12). Attacking midfield pair Wesley Saïd and Thauvin have both created seven each (joint-fifth most).
After Sangaré, Thomasson (42) has made the second-most tackles in the league and has also won possession the second-most times (104), while former Chelsea centre-back Malang Sarr (32) and Udol (26) have made the most interceptions in the division.
Odsonne Édouard has probably been the most eyebrow-raising success story, though. The former Crystal Palace striker had a largely disappointing time in the Premier League, especially last season when he was sent on loan to Leicester City and made just six appearances in all competitions for the relegated Foxes, five of which were off the bench.
Édouard has thrived back in France, though, scoring seven goals in 13 Ligue 1 games this season. Only three players in the league have more.
He has benefitted from receiving a lot of crosses, with both of his goals in the 2-0 victory against Nice coming from devastating balls into the box from Udol. Only Le Havre (295) and Lyon (231) have attempted more than Lens’ 225 open-play crosses in Ligue 1 this season. While Udol has been deadly with his crosses, no player has attempted as many open-play crosses as Lens’ man on the right, Ruben Aguilar (69), another player in his thirties (32) providing valuable experience.
Édouard has done well, but Lens could yet improve in front of goal. They have underperformed their expected goals total (xG) slightly this season, scoring 28 times from 30.4 xG.
We’ve already alluded to their ability to keep the ball out at the other end, though, having hugely outperformed their xG against, with 13 conceded from 23.1 xG.
Lens are set to be in a title race with the all-conquering PSG, but to get here they have not really copied their rivals’ blueprint in any way, with a very different approach tactically.
They only average 47.8% possession (10th highest in the league), and you can see from their zones-of-control map below that they don’t dominate opponents in many areas, especially when you compare it to PSG.
Rather, they like to race forward when they have the ball. Lens have had the most shots from fast breaks (26) and have scored the most goals from fast breaks (4) in Ligue 1 this season.
The style comparison graphic below shows they are one of the more direct teams in Ligue 1, with only Toulouse attacking at a faster speed upfield than their 1.97 metres per second.
Sage has largely played a 3-4-2-1 at Lens, but he hinted before getting the job that he’s a fan of fluidity in his tactics.
“During the game, we have some rotations and asymmetric combinations to sometimes play in 4-3-3, but also in 3-4-3 or a 3-2-5,” Sage told The Athletic in April. “It depends on what kind of players I have, the opponent and what we want to do in the game.
“My opinion is not to have something strong, it’s to have something very liquid, with the idea to have a lot of adaptations between the games and in the same game, because sometimes when the opponents change something, if you are not able to adapt, to solve the problems, you will not be competitive.”
That willingness to adapt may be key for Lens if they are to maintain their title challenge in the second half of the campaign. They start with a trip to Toulouse on Friday, before hosting struggling Auxerre. Then comes a huge game at Marseille on 24 January.
They will hope that by the time they host PSG on 12 April, they’re still either top of the table, or at the very least within touching distance of it.
The January transfer window offers another chance to strengthen the squad, but unlike recent years, Lens will need to resist the temptation to cash in on their star players when bigger clubs come calling. Even if their title challenge falters, there is a fantastic chance to qualify for the Champions League, and that will bring plenty of money in without the need to sell players.
Sangaré is likely to attract attention, but he will presumably be pleased to see his Mali teammate Amadou Haidara arriving after they both return from AFCON. The 27-year-old, who has previously been linked with Manchester United, will join Lens from RB Leipzig next month and add more quality to one of Ligue 1’s best midfields.
One way of seeing just how much substance there is to Lens’ form is to look at Opta’s expected points model, which simulates the number of goals scored in each match using the xG value of every shot. It then simulates the outcome (win/draw/loss) 10,000 times per match. Each team’s expected points are calculated based on how often they win, draw, or lose across those simulations.
It’s not an exact science, as expected goals data doesn’t include a lot of factors, such as game state and dangerous periods of possession that don’t lead to shots. Nevertheless, it’s still a decent barometer for how teams perform over the course of a campaign.
The Ligue 1 expected points table has Lens in third place, with Sage’s side having apparently won 11.5 more points than the xG data suggests they should have, so we may see them fall away in the second half of the season. They’ve overcome those expectations to this point, though, so why not think they can carry that on into 2026?
The Opta supercomputer may not have much faith in Lens’ chances, only giving them a 7.6% chance of winning their first title in 28 years (compared to PSG’s 87.3%), but you never know. Their unlikely challenge has at least made Ligue 1’s title picture more interesting than many expected it to be back in August.
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