Toulouse travel to the Stade Louis II Stadium to play Monaco this Friday evening where Monaco will be aiming to make it 3 wins from 3 matches in France Ligue 1.
Monaco started their season away to Bordeaux where they managed to win 2:0 – they followed that victory up with an impressive 4:1 win at home against Montpellier.
Toulouse lost 3:0 to Valenciennes in their opening game and managed to draw 1:1 with Bordeaux last time out.
Monaco entered the season in a best possible way as they earned two victories at the start of the season and are coming from a great 4:1 victory over Montpellier last weekend, now trying to get another three pointer and take over the first position in the league after three rounds.
The last 5 meetings between these two sides finished 0:2, 0:0, 0:0, 1:0 and 3:2.
Although it is still very early in the season, Monaco are joint top while Toulouse are 19th.
Monaco were promoted from Ligue 2 last season where they managed to score 64 goals in 38 matches and conceded just 33.
Toulouse finished 10th in Ligue 1 last season – they scored 49 goals in 38 matches and conceded 47.
Monaco have spent over £100 million during the transfer window bringing in world class players such as João Moutinho and James Rodríguez from FC Porto and most notably Radamel Falcao from Atletico Madrid.
Toulouse spent less than £10 million during the transfer window and lost one of their most influential players, Étienne Capoue to Tottenham.
Ultimately Monaco should win this match comfortably given their much improved squad and their impressive defensive record from last season (conceded 33 goals in 38 matches).
Toulouse generally score as many as they concede and this will be their biggest problem when facing a Monaco side who pose a massive goal threat while maintaining a solid back line.
From a betting perspective over 2.5 goals at odds of 17/20 appears to offer value – French matches are generally low-scoring but Monaco do have Falcao, Moutinho and Rodríguez who are sure to have chances during the game.
However, their start of the season isn’t a surprising one, as their owner spent a lot of this Summer, trying to improve the squad and be one of the candidates for the title at the end of the season. Their biggest signing was Falcao who played well at the start of the season, but is still to show his best. However, it seems that their defensive lineup still needs time to start playing fluently, as Montpellier had a lot of goalscoring opportunities and made many troubles to their defense. However, they only struggled during the first half, while they showed great offensive superiority in the second adding two more goals, while the exclusion of visitors’ player in 65th minute helped them a lot. Offensive midfielder Dirar is injured from the start of the season, same as striker/winger Barazite, but neither of them is important absentee with so rich and deep roster.
