Paris Saint-Germain entertain Lens at 8pm on Saturday evening looking to secure their first Ligue 1 victory of the season. We take a look at where the value might be in this fixture.

Team news: 

Despite the financial might they laud over all their rivals in Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain are still yet to win in Ligue 1 this term, having had to settle for two draws thus far. They started the campaign with a goalless stalemate with Lorient at Parc des Princes, followed by a 1-1 draw at Toulouse, with Kylian Mbappe opening up his account for the term from the penalty spot.

That’s right, Mbappe is back in favour in Paris when over the summer it seemed like this was going to be the year he would move on to Real Madrid. Even when it seemed like he was waiting to join Los Blancos on a free transfer next year, it looked as though the 2023-24 season would see him stuck in Paris without getting any minutes.

However, he and the club have come to a compromise and manager Luis Enrique has reintegrated the French international back into the squad, which will only help PSG in their attempts to achieve their goals for the year.

Lens are also looking to pick up their first three points of the year, having lost 3-2 to Brest on the opening weekend before salvaging a draw against Rennes last time out.

Kylian Mbappe to score first at 11/4 

Mbappe’s reintegration back into the PSG squad was desperately needed from a footballing perspective. Without him they would struggle even more than they already have in trying to win a game this year. He got off the mark last week in what was his first appearance of the season and it came from the bench. And although it was a penalty spot, it will have whet his appetite for more and especially goals from open play.

The super squad experiment at PSG failed. Sergio Ramos has gone, Lionel Messi has gone and so has Neymar. Mbappe may not be a Real Madrid player yet but one of his wishes has come true in that he is now the one true superstar at Parc des Princes.

If that hasn’t perked him up for another year at PSG, what will? Everyone knows he is too good for this division but that won’t stop him from having another outstanding campaign in France.

PSG to score in both halves at 6/5

We haven’t seen it yet from PSG but sooner or later they are going to deliver a stellar performance, otherwise the fans will be on their backs, particularly Luis Enrique’s. With Mbappe at their disposal, who will be pushing for his first start against Lens, PSG should be able to conjure up a few goals while continuing to dominate possession. Summer arrival Goncalo Ramos has been leading the line for them so far and you feel like it’s only a matter of time before he gets off the mark for Les Parisiens.

The same applies to winger Marco Asensio. The Spaniard joined PSG from Real Madrid ahead of the 2023-24 campaign and there is going to be a lot of high expectations from his performances. As we approach the third game of the season and another home fixture for PSG, it feels like this is an excellent opportunity for both Ramos and Asensio to show the PSG crowd what they can expect from them moving forward.