We discussed the visitors ahead of their 2-0 win at Arles two weeks ago....

"Monaco coach Claudio Ranieri has once again been allowed to spend big and in the last ten days has signed three Ligue 1 players, defensive midfielder Mounir Obbadi (19-2-0 from Troyes), striker Emmanuel Rivière (18-4-1 ...Toulouse) and central defender Carl Medjani (19-1-2 Ajaccio and who has just come back from the ACN-Algeria). That trio cost some 7-8m euros, which is unthinkable for any other team at this level, Rivière will form a fearsome strike trio along with Germain and Touré, who already have 22 goals between them this season, the other pair should tighten up a defence which has conceded 50% more goals than the other two teams in the promotion spots. Obbadi played 30 minutes from off the bench at home to Guingamp last Saturday and made a big impact assisting for the late equalisier, the other two should make their debuts this evening.

All season ASM have been stronger on the road where they are 6-2-2 and where they can play without the shackles of expectation, we spoke of them ahead of their visit to Istres on January 18th when they won 2-0 ....

I have banged on all season about how the Monday- Friday quick turnaround has been tough to overcome, but rules are meant to be broken and with the disappointing 1-1 home draw with Laval being Monaco's only competitive start in 23 days, we can see it as a positive this time, that they play again just four days later. To be honest, I felt they looked a little rusty on Monday, despite having arranged that friendly and too often took the wrong option around the penalty area and could not have conceded at a worse time. Left sided player Tristan Dingome (6-0-1) is back in the squad tonight, the youngster is not considered a key player, but Monaco are unbeaten in the last 15 matches (10-5-0) in which he has played at least an hour,left back Layvin Kurzawa also returns and they look stronger down that flank tonight. Andreas Wolf ( 17-2-0) is out , but with a squad this size and so full of talent, it seems churlish to even mention it !

Still no Andreas Wolf, but of course, as a group they look much stronger and competition for places has gone up a notch."

They won that very comfortably and despite playing again just a few days later, followed up at home to an inform Le Havre team. Now after a ten day break they have the opportunity to open up a five point lead at the top of the table. If Ranieri wants to keep his job, he had better be looking at a circa double digit point margin come the end of the campaign, they need to take this Championship title with a bit of swagger.

All the offensive big names are available and they look pretty awesome in Ligue 2 terms going forward.

The hosts can move to within two points of an automatic promotion spot with the win, we last spoke of them at the start of the month, ahead of a trip to Le Havre, where we were firmly in the home camp ....

"Big game for Le Havre, they are hopeful of getting into the promotion hunt and are "going" for results at present, if they lose the odd match along the way then so be it, but they are no longer so fearful of losing. They collected a hard earned win on that terrible pitch at Ajaccio last week and sit just six points off the promotion places, this is the first (and easiest) of four starts in a row against top seven teams and they will be targeting maximum points today, ahead of a trip to Monaco next week. Holding player Distel Zola (18-1-0) had only been on the pitch for 12 minutes before being sent off last week and will miss out, he is replaced by Drissa Traoré . I don't stew on bad results too long, but still feel angry that Dijon beat Lens on Monday, to say they rode their luck is a massive undertstatement, anyway the quick turnaround from Monday- Friday is tough to overcome in general and they spent a lot of time chasing RCL in that game. Pape Paye (19-0-0) was injured on Monday and is the only squad member from Monday not to travel, already short of offensive options and creating little , a little jaded and missed the protection Paye brings, I like the home win."

They lost that 3-0, but have got back on track with road wins at Sedan and Gazelec, two teams who will be playing third tier football next season. They remain without the "busy" Brice Jovial (15-5-3) up front, have only named two strikers and look to be packing the midfield, centre back William Remy (10-0-1) and left back Cedric Varrault (19-0-0) are also unavailable.

They have only named five defenders and the only two full backs are both just 21 yo, Bamba on the right looks solid, but on the other flank they look very suspect and they will flood the midfield to try and give them protection. Given those likely tactics and the fact that Monaco have scored 80% of all their goals in the final 60 minutes and Dijon have been potent early, with 23% in their opening 15, you might want to wait a little and take the visitors in running, but for email purposes, I will take a little now .....1 unit Monaco -0.5 ball 2.44 asian line/ Ibramarket..... if Monaco really needed this, I would make it a much more confident pick, as I feel they are clearly the stronger team.

Dijon : Reynet, Tchagouni - Cissé, Marié, Bamba, Souprayen, Paulle, Bérenguer, Mulumba, Paye, Guerbert, Baradji, Mollet, Philippoteaux, Koné, Tavares.

Monaco : Subasic, Sourzac, Roma - Adriano, Kagelmacher, Kurzawa, Medjani, Raggi, Tzavellas, Dingomé, Dirar, Mendy, Ndinga, Obbadi, Ocampos, Coulibaly, Germain, Rivière, Touré.

Good Luck.

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