Marseille up to second as Lyon flounder

Reigning champions Marseille took advantage of Rennes’ slip up at home to Montpellier with a come-from-behind 3-1 success at Lille on Sunday to move into second place in the French table.

Rennes stay one point clear but their momentum is fading after their first loss of the campaign Saturday, 1-0 at home to Montpellier.

Loic Remy was Marseille’s inspiration as he netted twice against a Lille side who have now lost two on a roll to slide out of the top six.

A Yohan Cabaye half-volley put the hosts on 26 minutes but Marseille roared back and Remy, played in by Mathieu Valbuena, fired in the equaliser eight minutes after the break before Argentine Lucho put the visitors ahead with a deflected effort on 71 minutes.

Remy then wrapped up the points nine minutes from time with a majestic header.

“We could hardly have played worse than we did in the first half,” said Marseille coach Didier Deschamps. “But with a bit more aggression and by keeping things simple we managed to dig ourselves out,” he told Canal+.

Lyon and Paris Saint Germain earlier laid bare the deteriorating standard of the French top flight, drawing with bottom side Arles and losing at home to struggling Auxerre respectively.

Lyon may have won all three of their Champions League matches this season but they were abject in failing to conquer an Arles side who had previously shown themselves to be out of their depth at this level with just one point from their opening nine matches.

Coach Claude Puel rued “a missed opportunity” to move up the table after a 1-1 draw in rain-drenched conditions at Arles’s modest Avignon home.

Home fans gave the apparent no-hopers a standing ovation after they had secured a deserved point but Puel was frustrated.

“We were very tired – it’s annoying as we had the chance to get the three points,” said Puel, lamenting an “apathetic first half”.

It could have been more after Dja Djedje’s 36th-minute chip put the hosts ahead but two minutes after the restart Jimmy Briand sent home a bullet header from a Miralem Pjanic corner to level.

Lyon fans were piqued – some holding up banners demanding Puel’s resignation.

Their club, seven league titles in a row before Bordeaux broke their sequence in 2009, are now 14th in the table, seven points off the pace.

PSG, no league titles since 1994, are sixth and just three points off the top three. But they left their supporters unimpressed after squandering an early lead in a 3-2 loss at the Parc des Princes against Auxerre – despite Nene giving them the lead with the fastest goal of the French season after just 50 seconds.

The promising start evaporated as Jean-Pascal Mignot, Roy Contout and Julien Quercia netted for the visitors before Nene scored a consolation penalty midway through the second half.

Brest shocked Bordeaux 2-0 away on Saturday to go joint second with Marseille and Saint Etienne but Rennes, top for the past two weeks for the first time since 1970 – were unable to keep their fine form going after Joris Marveaux notched the only goal for Montpellier.