Ligue 1 round-up: 4 interesting stats and facts from matchday eight

Another week, another series of Ligue 1 fixtures are done and in the books. Reigning champions PSG continue to make mincemeat of the competition in Thomas Tuchel's debut season, but Les Parisiens are hoping to impress on the European front, as domestic success has become rather pedestrian these days for the capital club.

Meanwhile, the rest of the chasing pack continue to jockey for position behind the league leaders, and Monaco's woes seem to show no signs of abating any time soon. Let's have a look at what took place on matchday eight of the current campaign.

Eight games, eight wins for PSG and a place in history

PSG crushed Nice 3-0 to make it 24 points and a perfect eight wins from eight games. To date, no team in Ligue 1 history has ever completed a season sans defeat. We have seen it done in the Premier League with Arsene Wenger's Arsenal and in Serie A with Perugia in the 90's and then Juventus under Antonio Conte more recently, but never in the French top flight.

It is still early on, but if there is any team who could achieve this momentus milestone in modern football, it certainly has to be PSG. Of course, there are still 30 games to go between now and May, but PSG's win over PSG means that they are now only the second team to win their first eight Ligue 1 games of a campaign.

The first? Olympique Lillois. No, that's not Lille, and that is not a typo. Olympique Lillois are the precedessor of sorts to the club currently known as Lille, and they were founded in 1902 before merging with another club, SC Fives in 1944 to form Lille.

8 - @PSG_English have won their first eight Ligue 1 games of the season, only Olympique Lillois in 1936/37 (5th) have done the same in the Ligue 1 history. Amazing. pic.twitter.com/duEZzVZPtE

— OptaJean ⭐⭐ (@OptaJean) September 29, 2018

Marseille's so-called "bad luck" charm?

It may be a tad harsh to call a player "bad luck" but certainly, if one looks at some interesting stats, one can not say that perhaps Gregory Sertic brings his team good fortunes either:

4 - Marseille's last 4 Ligue 1 games with Grégory Sertic in the starting 11:

0-3 v Lille yesterday

3-3 v Guingamp in May 2018

1-3 v Rennes in September 2017

1-6 v Monaco in August 2018

Error404. pic.twitter.com/5lPFT0rNTn

— OptaJean ⭐⭐ (@OptaJean) October 1, 2018 

Of course, a team's performance is not just based on one player and rather the entire output of all 11 men on the pitch - plus the formation selected by the man on the bench.

Monaco truly in full panic mode

What has gone wrong for Monaco this season? Last term, Leonardo Jardim's men were the runners-up in Ligue 1. This term, they are barely struggling to stay afloat, and it seems like there is no end in sight for Radamel Falcao and their colleagues. Their loss on Friday to Saint-Etienne means they have matched a rather unwanted record in the process dating back to the 1970's:

1974 –Monaco have picked up 6 points after 8 games in Ligue 1 2018/19, their worst tally at this stage since the season 1973/74 (also 6 points). Nightmare. pic.twitter.com/seecFFJs4e

— OptaJean ⭐⭐ (@OptaJean) September 28, 2018 

Making his nation proud

However, as Monaco continue to flounder, Saint-Etienne continue to soar. Wahbi Khazri netted a brace against the struggling Ligue 1 runners-up on Friday, bringing his total to four goals for the season, but more important, set a historic milestone in the process.

In total, Khazri now has 40 goals in Ligue 1, which makes him the all-time top goalscorer for Tunisia in French football's top flight. At 27, he has plenty of football still yet to play, so who knows how many goals he will score between now and then?

Current rankings after matchday 8

Here is how the table looks after eight rounds. It really does not look like anyone will be able to stop PSG at the top of the table..or will they? 

Pos.		Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P	Form
1		PSG	28	18	9	1	65	24	+41	63	DWWDD
2		Brest	29	15	8	6	44	27	+17	53	LWWDL
3		Monaco	28	15	7	6	53	38	+15	52	WWDWD
4		Lille	28	13	10	5	42	25	+17	49	WWDDW
5		Nice	28	12	8	8	28	22	+6	44	DLWLL
6		Lens	29	12	7	10	38	32	+6	43	LDLLW
7		Olympique Lyonnais	29	12	5	12	38	45	-7	41	WWDWW
8		Reims	29	11	7	11	36	39	-3	40	LDDWD
9		Olympique Marseille	28	10	9	9	41	33	+8	39	LLLWW
10		Rennes	29	10	9	10	41	36	+5	39	LLLWD
11		Toulouse	29	9	9	11	34	37	-3	36	WDWLL
12		Strasbourg	29	9	9	11	33	40	-7	36	WDWWL
13		Montpellier	29	8	10	11	36	41	-5	33	DWWLW
14		Nantes	29	9	4	16	28	45	-17	31	WLWLL
15		Le Havre	29	6	10	13	27	37	-10	28	LDLLW
16		Lorient	28	6	8	14	35	52	-17	26	LLDLW
17		Metz	29	7	5	17	30	49	-19	26	WLLLW
18		Clermont	29	4	10	15	21	48	-27	22	DDLWL

The race for the top scorer's prize

Here is how things are looking among the battle for the top scorer's prize in Ligue 1.