Olympique Marseille vs Nantes FC Prediction: The handwriting is on the wall.

Like the hands of the clock, Olympique Marseille’s fortunes have turned dramatically. They are now playing their best football in a long time and they are getting the right results to go along with it. But the job is far from over for the Marseille team as they have their eyes fixed on the Champions League spot for next season. And their next victim is Nantes FC at the Orange Velodrome.

Nantes have suffered inconsistent results for some time and as a result they are most likely heading down the table unless they can start getting the right results. Nantes will have a mountain to climb when they take the trip to the Orange Velodrome because Marseille are not just in fine form, but they are in no mood to share points.

Olympique Marseille

Olympique Marseille's turnaround has to be credited to Jean-Louis Gasset’s appointment last month. Prior to that, they were heading to destruction and there was no hope of redemption. But the tides seem to have changed for this team and they are currently unbeaten in their last 4 matches in all competitions. In those 4 games, Olympique Marseille won by at least a margin of 2 goals to more. They trashed Montpellier 4-1, then Clermont Foot 5-1 among others.

Ahead of the game against Nantes, there's only one result Olympique Marseille are interested in and that's a win. Jean-Louis Gasset has set up the team to play an interesting brand of football and beating Nantes surely won't be difficult for the team.

He played the 4-3-3 formation in the 4-0 win over Villarreal in the Europa League and there's no reason why he should change it in this upcoming game. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has met expectations in the LF position and he's among the few players who are guaranteed starters in Gasset's team. He scored twice in the Villarreal game and he should get into the scoresheet easily against Nantes. 

Nantes

There will be lots of thoughts running through the minds of the Nantes team and supporters and one of them won't be confidence. They have had a few weeks of mixed emotions due to inconsistent results and heading into this game against Olympique Marseille seems like a guarantee for more heartbreak.

Nantes have won only 2 of their last 8 matches in all competitions and they were beaten by Met FC last weekend at home. 

Nantes manager Jocelyn Gourvennec will be worried about his team's state of mind after they failed to turn up in the last game against Metz FC. They lost by 2 goals to nil courtesy of 2 quick goals from Georges Mikautadze and Mattieu Udol. Nantes were behind according to the statistics as they had 47% possession, 2 shots on target and 10 corner kicks. They also had just 1 big chance throughout the game.

Jocelyn Gourvennec knows how costly such a lackluster performance can be against a top team like Olympique Marseille. So he has a lot of work to do to help his team prepare for the tough game and hopefully he can get at least a draw at the end 

Head to Head

According to the h2h, in the last 20 meetings between Nantes and Olympique Marseille, Marseille won 10 matches, while Nantes won 5 matches and they drew 5 matches. 

Analysis and Predictions

The handwriting is clear! Olympique Marseille are the clear favorites and a win for Marseille is the only result that would make sense.

According to the h2h, Olympique Marseille have not lost the last 7 meetings while Nantes are without a clean sheet in the last 8. Both teams scored in 6 of the last 8 meetings and Olympique Marseille scored in 4 of the last 5 meetings. There were more than 4.5 cards in 6 of the last 7 meetings and less than 10.5 corners in 7 of the last 9 meetings.

• Olympique Marseille to Win and Over 1.5 Goals at 1.8 Odds
• Olympique Marseille to Win and Over 1.5 Goals at 1.8 Odds
• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Score Anytime at 2.20 Odds