Could Lens really win Ligue 1? How France's surprise package are standing up to PSG in title race

Luis Enrique is adamant that there are no major problems in Paris. "What has changed, compared to last season, is Lens," the PSG coach said. "They are different. The rest is as usual."

He's probably only half-right. Lens are definitely different, almost unrecognisable, in fact, from the side that failed to qualify for Europe less than a year ago.

They were by no means a bad side under former manager Will Still. On the contrary, an eighth-placed finish felt like a solid showing for a selling club. So, it's really more a case of Pierre Sage surpassing all expectations since succeeding Still at the helm last summer.

Admittedly, Sage had looked like a shrewd appointment by Lens, given he'd done a good job in difficult circumstances at Lyon before being sacked in January of last year. However, his target at the start of the season was avoiding relegation - and the club was totally fine with that, as their sole focus was on balancing the books. 

Sage has now reluctantly admitted after guiding Lens back to the top of Ligue 1 with a 5-0 rout of their own, away to Paris FC, that his team's "ambitions" have changed. However, he insisted, "The title isn't on my mind. We've achieved our goal (avoiding relegation), so now we'll think about the Conference League.

"The Champions League requires at least three wins, if not more, so we're thinking more about Olympique de Marseille or Olympique Lyonnais than PSG."

It's telling, though, that his players have adopted a very different perspective.

"We are in a good position to fight for the title - we are not going to hide it," former Crystal Palace striker Odsonne Edouard said. "We are competitors. We will go until the end."

There's no real reason to doubt that Lens can push PSG all the way either, given so many of their players are presently performing at such a high level.

Lens have sold a succession of talented players since they last fought for the title, in 2022-23, when they finished just one point behind PSG. For example, both Abdukodir Khusanov and Kevin Danso are now plying their trade in the Premier League, with Manchester City and Tottenham, respectively.

So, after losing three more key men during last summer's transfer window - Neil El-Aynaoui (Roma), Andy Diouf (Inter) and Facundo Medina (Marseille) - veteran midfielder Adrien Thomasson had no real idea what to expect from a much-changed Lens going into the current campaign.

"We were asking ourselves how it would look this season, and whether the players who replaced those who left would be at the same level," the 32-year-old revealed in an interview with getfootballnewsfrance.com. "And in this sense, the club worked well because we have a competitive team, which, for me, is better than last year.

"We are more balanced, I think. We really have profiles of players that we didn’t necessarily have last season, especially in attack. For me, we are a more complete team."

There's absolutely no doubt of that, with nearly all of the signings having made a massive and instantaneous impact at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

Robin Risser, a €3 million aquisition from Strasbourg, was by no means Lens' No.1 goalkeeping target, having never previously seen a minute of Ligue 1 action, yet the France Under-21 international is now being tipped to receive a call-up to the senior squad from Didier Deschamps.

The same goes for left wing-back Matthieu Udol (€3.5m), who, at 29, is playing the best football of his career, while former Newcastle attacker Florian Thauvin (€6m) has already been brought back into the France fold at 33 years of age because of his remarkable resurgence at Lens.

Deschamps won't be on the phone to Edouard (€3.7m) any time soon, but he's enjoying a mini-revival of his own after enduring a dismal loan spell at Leicester City last season before being offloaded by Palace.

Mamadou Sangare, meanwhile, has reportedly attracted the attention of a number of Premier League teams, including Manchester United and Chelsea, with his dominant displays in midfield, and it's been claimed that Crystal Palace and West Ham are closely monitoring fellow €8m summer signing Samso Baidoo, whose been brilliant at the back since his arrival from Red Bull Salzburg.

Lens' incredible improvement isn't solely down to shrewd signings - even if their January move for Allan Saint-Maximin is already looking like a masterstroke, with the ex-Newcastle winger having been involved in three goals in his first two outings in Ligue 1.

Sage has also invigorated existing members of the squad, such as the 30-year-old Wesley Said, who has hit a career-high 10 goals from the left-hand side of the coach's three-pronged attack. In the case of Thomasson, meanwhile, moving the Frenchman into a deeper playmaking role reaped rewards, but when it came to Malang Sarr, it was almost all mental work.

Lens were open to selling a defender clearly still traumatised by his spirit-crushing spell at Chelsea, but despite an offer from Anderlecht, they kept Sarr at the behest of Sage, who quickly concluded that the 27-year-old's physicality, versatility and elite-level experience could help him become a key figure in his three-man backline.

The coach's show of faith played a pivotal part in Sarr getting his confidence back and he's been integral to Lens conceding fewer goals than any other team in Ligue 1 this season (17). When you throw in the fact that Lens haven't failed to score in a game since the end of October, it's easy to understand why many connected to the club are starting to believe.

"This team is a steamroller: they defend while moving forward and press opponents into mistakes," former president Gervais Martel, who presided over Lens' 1998 title triumph, enthused in an interview with L'Equipe. "So, why not dream of being champions?!"

Sage is obviously determined to play down talk of a title triumph, pointing out that PSG, as they proved last season, are "an extraordinary team" capable of sweeping all before them between now and the end of the season. "As soon as PSG put their foot down in the final stretch, it's possible we won't see them again," the Lens coach said.

Sage also argued that Luis Enrique's side are only beatable if "they aren't PSG". But that's the thing: Le Classique aside, PSG haven't really looked like themselves for a significant chunk of the season.

There are obviously a number of reasons for that, chief among them the fatigue and injuries caused by competing on so many fronts for all of 2025. However, Dembele rather revealingly claimed just a week after heralding PSG's return to form that the main problem was some of his colleagues were no longer playing with the same selfless attitude.

"Last season, we put the club first, before thinking about ourselves, and I think we need to get back to that,"  the Ballon d'Or winner warned after last week's shock loss at Rennes. "We're in the second half of the season, and it's Paris Saint-Germain that should come first, not individual players, because if we play on our own on the field, it won't work. We won't win the titles we want."

There is, then, at least a glimmer of hope for Lens, even if Sage is staying grounded by arguing that his team would have to defeat the champions in April's head-to-head to have any chance of dethroning them.

"I've never beaten PSG before," the 46-year-old said, "but if that could happen on April 12th, that wouldn't be bad!" Indeed, were Lens to win that particular showdown at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, even Sage might actually start thinking about the title.