Le Havre 0-0 Angers: a first clean sheet of the season, against the run of play

Le Havre had conceded in every one of their first three Ligue 1 matches this season. They finally kept a clean sheet in their fourth, holding out for a 0-0 draw against Angers at the Stade Océane despite seeing less of the ball and facing the side with the higher expected-goals number on the day.

Le Havre's first shutout of the campaign

Before this match, Le Havre had shipped four goals in three games — beaten at home by Monaco, drawing at Lyon, then losing at home to Brest — and sat second-from-bottom with a single point. The defensive display against Angers reversed that pattern almost entirely: for all of Angers's control of the ball, Le Havre actually had more shots (10 to 9) and more of them on target (6 to 2), even if none of the ten found a way past the Angers goalkeeper.

Angers control the ball, not the scoreline

Angers had the better underlying numbers — 55% possession and 0.68 expected goals against Le Havre's 0.51 — continuing an up-and-down opening month that had already produced a home defeat to Lille, an away win at Auxerre and a home loss to Rennes. A fourth different result in four matches means Angers still have not shown a settled pattern of form, for better or worse, four rounds into the season.

What's next

The point moves Le Havre to 2 from four matches — still in Ligue 1's automatic relegation places, where 17th and 18th go down at the end of the season, but with a first clean sheet to build on going into the international break. Angers move to 4 points and stay in the bulk of mid-table, needing more consistency than four results in four different directions has shown so far.