Sunday's Classique Against Marseille Is a Must-Win for PSG and Unai Emery
There was a time before Paris Saint-Germain had more money than every other club in the country. The prospect of Le Classique, Olympique de Marseille, the team from the south, taking on the northern powerhouse, was undoubtedly the biggest attraction in Ligue 1.
Some of that shine has been lost over the past few years. As PSG have dominated the league, Marseille’s position has slipped, and the challengers have become the annoying little cousin.
Sunday feels different, though. This feels bigger, much more important and a vital game at this stage of the season.
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Paris Saint-Germain are not top of the league, yet there still feels like an inevitability about it. Once they get past the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, they will have a run of games to assert their dominance.
Manager Unai Emery’s job, in his first season, is to keep them in the mix until the start of December. Then once they've faced Ludogorets Razgrad at home on the Dec. 6, they have a couple of months to fire on all cylinders domestically.
Looking beyond the results of recent games, all is not well under the guidance of the Spanish boss. A better team would have taken at least one of the chances FC Basel created on Wednesday night.
"We're going to try and improve still more in the weeks to come," Emery admitted after the game, per the team's official website. "We have another big match on Sunday at home to Marseille. We're going to focus on the Classico."
Defeats away against Toulouse and AS Monaco disappointed. That was not just in terms of the results but more in the way they played. The performances were toothless and lacked heart and desire. This new-look vision under the Spanish boss often looks off the pace.
He has already ditched the 4-2-3-1 that started the season so brightly. Olympique Lyonnais played into their hands during the Trophee des Champions victory in August. PSG looked sensational.
Tests in Ligue 1 asked more questions of his tactics and philosophy. They may have won against SC Bastia, FC Metz, SM Caen and Dijon, but apart from the first 45 minutes against the Norman side, they failed to impress.
Cast your mind back to the Champions League fixture against Chelsea at the Parc des Princes in February. PSG came out of the blocks quickly, ripping the London side apart. They were outstanding, pinging the ball around, purring like a delighted kitten.
We’ve not seen that under Emery yet. PSG, now back to playing 4-3-3, as they did under Laurent Blanc, look a little stale. They lack creativity and imagination, and when you look at the victories over AS Nancy, Basel and Ludogorets, it’s almost as if they need to rely on mistakes from weaker opponents to find a way through.
There is absolutely nothing to say that won’t happen on Sunday, but this is the one game of the season that you can guarantee Marseille will be incredibly motivated for. Even more so on Sunday.
If the summer departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Emery’s arrival ushered in a new era in the French capital, then Marseille awoke to a new dawn of their own in the week preceding Le Classique.
On Monday, American businessman Frank McCourt completed the purchase of OM and was officially unveiled as the club’s new owner. The former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers promised investment, which will have captured the imagination of the fans.
"Today, a new chapter opens in the great history of Olympique de Marseille," McCourt told the press. "We're going to put our club back on the road to glory."
He continued: "By sticking by the club, the fans have shown their loyalty and their unwavering support, which shows the power of sport and affection that they have for our club."
Their first step toward glory was appointing a new manager. Franck Passi, the former Bolton Wanderers defender who had been No. 2 behind Elie Baup, Marcelo Bielsa and Michel, was let go, and the club appointed former Lille and AS Roma boss Rudi Garcia as the new man in charge.
He was the coach who got the best out of Eden Hazard and Gervinho, helped develop Mathieu Debuchy and Yohan Cabaye and led Lille to a league-and-cup double during the 2010/11 campaign, ending a 57-year trophy drought.
"When I met Rudi, the first thing he told me was that he wanted to win the Champions League," said McCourt after naming Garcia as manager on Thursday, per Reuters. "I immediately knew that he would be the right man to coach Olympique Marseille. Rudi is a man with great character, with a lot of energy."
Sunday’s game will be the biggest test Emery has faced so far in France—not in terms of the quality of the opponent but the importance and the symbolism that comes from winning the fixture.
"Beating PSG away from home in Garcia's first game would represent a huge statement of intent from the new OM regime,” Mohammed Ali, Marseille fan and member of MarseilleUK told Bleacher Report. "After all, Marseille have not beaten Paris since 2011, in the first fixture following [PSG owner Qatar Sports Investment's] arrival in Paris."
The last time Marseille beat PSG in Ligue 1 was Nov. 27, 2011. Goals from Loic Remy, Morgan Amalfitano and Andre Ayew helped OM beat PSG 3-0 at the Stade Velodrome.
"Over the last five years, the widening gap between the two clubs has been difficult to take for most OM fans, but a positive performance on Sunday would be very symbolic of the direction that the club—under the guidance of McCourt—will take," Mohammed continued.
"I think we're under no illusions that this Classique is likely to go the way of the Parisians once more, but as the first game of an exciting new era, OM are looking forward to getting off on the right foot and taking the first step in their revival."
You have to go back to 2010 to find OM’s last victory at the Parc des Princes. Hatem Ben Arfa was among the scorers in a 3-0 win as Didier Deschamps got the better of Antoine Kombouare.
Since then, it’s been a PSG clean sweep in the French capital. In Carlo Ancelotti’s first derby, he had a quick Jeremy Menez goal to thank for the lead. Defender Alex scored 60 seconds after Ayew had equalised, killing OM’s momentum for a 2-1 win.
Laurent Blanc’s first Classique came at the Stade Velodrome, but his team showed quality and desire to come back from an Ayew penalty to win 2-1—despite Thiago Motta’s 31st-minute red card.
It almost goes without saying, but Emery has to win on Sunday. A lot of PSG fans are already unconvinced by his style and methods. If he were to lose his first derby match, especially at the Parc des Princes, the heat would be on the Spanish coach.
Garcia has a decent record in the capital, especially with Lille. He may have had a much better squad than he does now, but he always found a way to be competitive and fight for the 90 minutes.
The timing of his arrival may be a little strange. He won’t have had much chance to put any sort of stamp on his new club, but his arrival and the words from McCourt will surely pump up the OM players, fans and staff.
It would cap off a wonderful week for the club if they were to somehow make the trip to Paris and come away with all three points for the first time since 2010.
Delight for Marseille would mean utter despair for PSG and would certainly raise further questions about whether Emery is the right man for this job.
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