THAUVIN STRIKES AS OM MAKE IT THREE WINS IN A ROW

OM recorded three consecutive victories in the opening three weeks of the campaign and lost only once in their first eight Ligue 1 games before a slump that increased the pressure on Elie Baup and his players. Baup made six changes from the side that started the 2-0 Champions League loss at Arsenal on Tuesday and was rewarded by a three-point haul.
The margin of victory would have been greater but for a fine display by visiting goalkeeper Geoffrey Jourdren but even he couldn’t stop Saber Khalifa stroking home a second in stoppage time to add to Thauvin’s 36^th-minute opener and OM will stay in fourth no matter what happens over the rest of the weekend. OM’s next test is at high-flying Lille on Tuesday.
Montpellier suffered a first-minute blow when Djamel Bakar sustained a knee injury and had to be replaced by Victor-Hugo Montano who spurned the first opening of the encounter, the Colombian with a heavy touch after a lovely Rémy Cabella pass that allowed Souleymane Diawara to get back on terms and snuff out the danger.
Jourdren heroics before Thauvin breaks deadlock
It took OM nearly 20 minutes to carve out their first chance and Jourdren made a point-blank stop from Thauvin. Jourdren was soon called into action again as Morgan Sanson played a backpass without looking and the visiting keeper came off his line quickly to reach it before André-Pierre Gignac.
Mathieu Valbuena had a free-kick pushed away before OM made the breakthrough in the 36^thminute. Kassim Abdallah’s cross from the right caused havoc with Daniel Congré blasting the ball into Dimitri Payet – back from a minor knee complaint –  and it broke to Thauvin who side-footed home his eighth goal in his last eight appearances for club and country.
Gignac won the argument to take the next free-kick and forced another decent stop from Jourdren as OM dominated the chance count. Indeed, Jourdren was Montpellier’s outstanding player of the period and he came out to the edge of the box to deny Thauvin a second after a defence-splitting Payet pass.
Khalifa adds gloss
In the 58^th minute Montpellier were so close to equalising when a Cabella free-kick into the danger zone resulted in Nicolas N’Koulou narrowly avoiding putting through his own net. Benjamin Mendy’s pace then got OM out of trouble as he retrieved a positional mistake to block a shot by sub Souleymane Camara. Cabella, scorer of a marvellous goal against Guingamp in Week 14, flashed a shot wide of Mandanda’s near post as Jean Fernandez’s side pressed.
Gignac, like Cabella, scored a wonder goal last weekend and a powerful curled shot from the left-edge of the box by the burly forward was pushed away by Jourdren. Gignac had scored late winners in OM’s two Ligue 1 victories over Montpellier last season but here his goalscoring services weren’t required. Khalifa scored his first OM goal within a few minutes of coming on as the former Evian forward met a Thauvin cross-field ball and finished with aplomb from the edge of the area.

THAUVIN STRIKES AS OM MAKE IT THREE WINS IN A ROW