Dimitar Berbatov scored his first Monaco goal as the principality club immediately got back to winning ways with a 2-1 triumph at home to lowly Sochaux.
Monaco's title challenge suffered a blow last weekend when they lost at St Etienne, but were on course to bounce back after just five minutes as January signing Berbatov struck after six minutes.
Berbatov then won a penalty for James Rodriguez to convert on 54 minutes.
That proved crucial as Sochaux pulled a goal back late on, Edouard Butin scrambling in while he laid on the ground, although Jordan Ayew's petulant kick on Andrea Raggi ended any thought of a comeback as the on-loan striker saw red.
Nice marked their 2,000th game in the French top flight with an impressive 1-0 win on the road at Mediterranean rivals Marseille.
Valentin Eysseric bagged the only goal at Stade Velodrome to move Nice to 11th in the Ligue 1 standings, while defeat for Marseille deals a further blow to their hopes of securing Champions League football next season.
OM could see the gap to third-placed Lille increase to nine points by the end of the weekend, surely too big a divide to bridge over the final 10 games of the season.
Valenciennes boosted their survival hopes with a 2-1 win over fellow Ligue 1 strugglers Rennes.
After a goalless first half, Ola Toivonen gave Rennes the lead only for Mathieu Dossevi and Abdul Majeed Waris to turn the game around, the latter following up after his penalty was saved.
The win leaves Valenciennes on 25 points and still in the third relegation place, five points behind Evian and six adrift of their opponents - who had Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik sent off for conceding the penalty for the winning goal.
Sigamary Diarra struck a last-gasp equalizer as Ligue 1's whipping boys Ajaccio denied freefalling Nantes what would have been their first victory in eight matches.
Nantes had taken just two points from a possible 21 to slump to within two spots of the drop zone, but they looked to have finally secured a win as goals from Serge Gakpe and Filip Djordjevic overturned Mehdi Mostefa's early opener for Ajaccio.
However, with victory seemingly in their grasp, the 2001 French champions were denied right at the death when Diarra slotted home two minutes into stoppage time as the match finished 2-2.
That late goal saw Nantes slip to within seven points of the relegation zone following third-bottom Valenciennes' win over Rennes, and completed a miserable few days for Les Canaris after seeing their appeal against a 16-month transfer embargo fail on Friday.
Diarra's equalizer will not have brought rock-bottom Ajaccio much cheer either, though, as while it helped them avoid a fourth successive loss, results elsewhere mean they are now 10 points adrift of safety.
Cedric Cambon scored the only goal of the game as Evian moved five points clear of the Ligue 1 relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Guingamp.
Cambon headed home Cedric Barbosa's free-kick in the 49th minute to hand the visitors all three points and give them a major boost in their battle to avoid the drop.
The win lifted Evian to within two points of their opponents who saw their two-game winning streak brought to an end.
Wissam Ben Yedder's superb solo goal completed a remarkable Toulouse comeback as they beat Reims 3-2 in Ligue 1.
Le Tefece trailed to two first-half penalties, from Grzegorz Krychowiak and Nicolas de Preville, as visitors Reim looked to keep themselves in touch with the European qualifying places.
But Alain Casanova's side roared back with three goals in the last 15 minutes, Serge Aurier and Eden Ben Basat drawing them level before Ben Yedder slalomed through in the 88th minute to snatch all three points.
