Losing key midfield enforcer Abergel has put a slight dampener on Lorient's mood, but welcoming Ouattara and his four goals and five assists back to the first XI spells even more success for the in-form Merlus.
Reims performed valiantly against PSG and can expect some joy in front of goal versus a Lorient backline that is far from impenetrable, but Le Bris's side have been almost unplayable at home and possess the required firepower to storm to a seventh consecutive win, and with it, a historic spell at the top of the table.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Reims win with a probability of 36.13%. A win for Lorient had a probability of 36.12% and a draw had a probability of 27.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Reims win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.96%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (7.82%) and 0-2 (6.55%). The likeliest Lorient win was 1-0 (10.96%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.09%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 9.2% likelihood.
-0.54) 
0.02) 
