Claude Puel is closer to saving his job as Lyon coach, and a fifth straight win at Arles on Sunday in the French league will take some more pressure off him following a vitriolic campaign among the club's fans for his dismissal.
Things had been so bad for Puel that even club president Jean-Michel Aulas gave him until the end of October to turn the situation around when fans demanded his firing, even hanging hateful banners off highway bridges and in Lyon's city center.
But Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Benfica in the Champions League shows that Puel may be turning the situation around.
Even the players, often unhappy with his rigid methods based extensively on grueling stamina training, are starting to enjoy themselves.
"We're starting to see some smiling faces again. We have to keep going, make the most of it. This team has a lot of desire and ambition," Puel said. "Not conceding goals is also important. Now we will have to go and beat Arles, because we will be judged on that."
Veteran defender Anthony Reveillere, who was a key part of Lyon's team in five of its seven consecutive title wins, agreed that things are changing for the better within the club.
"We need this confidence, and confidence comes with victories," Reveillere said. "It makes the atmosphere better in the squad and gives us hope for the rest (of the season)."
Lyon won only one of its opening seven league games, leaving the team in 14th place. But beating Arles, which has only one point, should not pose a problem.
"We need to pick up the three points to move up the table and maintain the objectives we set ourselves at the start of the season," Reveillere said.
At the top of the table, Rennes will look to maintain its unbeaten start when it takes on Montpellier at home.
Rennes has 19 points from nine matches, and is two points ahead of second-place Saint-Etienne, which is at home to Caen. They all play on Saturday.
Rennes and Saint-Etienne have made a surprisingly strong start to the season, but resurgent Paris Saint-Germain and defending champion Marseille are slowly catching up and are in third place with 15 points each.
Prior to its Europa League match at Borussia Dortmund on Thursday, PSG had not conceded a goal in any competition for seven straight games, while Marseille has won three of the four league games to crawl back up the table.
PSG is at home to struggling Auxerre and Marseille travels to sixth-place Lille, with those games on Sunday.
But Marseille fans hoping for entertaining football under coach Didier Deschamps are likely to continue to be disappointed if Tuesday's dour 1-0 win against Zilina in the Champions League is anything to go by.
"Worried? No, why would I be? We are winning without playing well and not conceding goals," Deschamps said. "Of course we should be able to play better. We have a lot of chances, we shoot a lot but we don't the target enough. But as a coach I would be worried if we weren't creating chances."
Midfielder Edouard Cisse is somewhat more sympathetic toward the disgruntled Marseille fans.
"We're not attractive to watch, that's a fact," Cisse said. "But we're winning. You have to stay calm and dig your heels in. The style is missing, but we're getting results."
Auxerre finished third last season and then qualified for the Champions League, but that has had a major impact on the league form. The team is just one place above the relegation zone and seems certain to go out of the Champions League after losing all three group games.
Also Saturday, it's: Bordeaux vs. Brest; Lens vs. Nice; Monaco vs. Valenciennes; Nancy vs. Lorient; and Sochaux vs. Toulouse.
