Betfair.net

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Lyon's fall from grace this season is not that they haven't won a league match for six weeks, despite qualifying ahead of Liverpool from their Champions League group. It's also not that Claude Puel seems to have only now lost the support of the Stade Gerland crowd, or that just like last season they are overly-reliant on two players (for Juninho and Benzema last year, read Lloris and Lisandro this year).

No, it's the fact that the betting markets have taken this long to start to write off their chances. They were still as short as 3.3 (+230) last week, although they are now a more realistic 7.8 (+680). On the European front, their name may be in the pot for Friday's draw whilst the likes of Liverpool and Juventus won't be, but at odds of 75.0 (+7400), they're not fancied to progress too far.

Lyon's current price is based on former glories, rather than current form. After all, this is a side whose recent form has turned a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 defeat to Lille, then drawn 1-1 with Rennes, the same with bottom-of-the-table Grenoble, and a 5-5 draw with Marseille. They are now winless in five games and Sunday night's defeat at home to leaders Bordeaux, thanks to a late winner from Marouane Chamakh, has left them rooted in ninth place and eight points behind Laurent Blanc's side.

They have not won a home match in the league since September 26th, have only won one of their last eight league matches, and the last time they were eight behind the leaders at this stage of the season was in 1998/1999, before they had even one French title to their name.

As L'Equipe put it on Monday: "Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas can no longer deny the obvious, things are going very wrong at OL. Their play is desperately poor, they are plagued by internal differences. They gave up their throne last year and clearly have no weapons to gain it back."

Aulas has insisted that Puel, the coach who replaced Alain Perrin 16 months ago (despite Perrin guiding Lyon to the fist league and Cup double in their history) is safe in his job, although calls for his resignation are increasing. Instead, the president might look to dip into the January transfer market, almost as though his record splurge last summer, when he spent over €50m on Lisandro Lopez, Bafe Gomis, Michel Bastos and Aly Cissokho, never happened.

Scoring goals has not been a problem for Lyon; only Valenciennes, Marseille and Lille (who have scored in each of their last four matches) have scored more in Ligue 1.

It's at the other end where Lyon's problems lie, and this is despite the outstanding performances of France No 1 Hugo Lloris. Lyon have conceded 23 goals in their first 16 games, only four goals fewer than in the whole of Perrin's final campaign. An injury to center-back Jean-Alain Boumsong has left Puel going with midfielder Mathieu Bodmer to partner Cris, a player who looks a shadow of his imperious self from a few seasons back. Bodmer, meanwhile, seems unconvinced of his own qualities as a center-back, even if Puel might prefer him to Boumsong if they are both fit at the same time. Lyon's lack of depth in that position has been a clear flaw in Aulas' recruitment.

But there are other problems in the camp. Since Vincent Espie was appointed new fitness coach in the summer, lots of players have been ruled out with muscle injuries, among them key midfielder Jeremy Toulalan, while the performances of wide-men Miralem Pjanic and Bastos have been infuriatingly inconsistent. Lyon's general manager Bernard Lacombe described last week's capitulation to Lille as "a disgrace" and said: "There is a lack of leaders in this team."

One thing seems sure; after losing Juninho and Benzema last summer, this group of players, who once knew how to win things together, looks broken. Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc warned against writing off Lyon, pointing out that when his team lost at Lyon last season, in Week 14, they slipped to nine points behind them at the time.

Bordeaux went on to win their last 11 matches to seal the title, but somehow you can't see Lyon managing that. Instead, with Bordeaux 1.8 (-125) and Marseille 3.5 (+250) realistic title-contenders, Lyon could be left fighting with Lille, Rennes and even Montpellier for Ligue 1's final Champions League qualifying place, and Puel looking for a job at the end of
the season.