Just who isn't injured? Of the ten players out, seven of them are starting players. Defensively, Lyon are once again in a crisis. They are down to their last men in terms of defense. Besides academy kids, Lyon have no backups at all. If anything happens to the players that are left, Lyon will be screwed.

These 3-0 losses are starting to turn into a yearly ritual. A humiliating one.

The game was so bad that Lyon's official website posted a highlight video that was only three minutes long - usually they are around twenty minutes. Watching it, I realized why. Apart from Mickael Pagis's three goals, not much else happened.

Match pictures and highlights at the bottom of the post.

THE GOOD:

Definitely the man of the match...on both sides.

Hugo Lloris.

He's definitely shaken off the jitters that afflicted him in the Fiorentina match.

According to L'Equipe, this is Lyon's best league start to a season since 2001/2002. Unbeaten in all their games, with five wins and a draw, they are already four points ahead of second placed Marseille. And despite having a defense that would make even the bravest of people whimper with fear, Lyon conceded only two goals so far, giving them the best defense in the league.

Several players have been called up for international action next week. For many countries, this is the last opportunity to get things sorted before World Cup qualifiers start this fall.

France (vs. Sweden - 08/20/08): Hugo Lloris, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Jeremy Toulalan, Sidney Govou, Karim Benzema

Sweden (vs.

Forgive this abbreviated match preview, but I'm in the middle of trying to find a new apartment, so things are a bit chaotic in my life at the moment. I'd a nice, long preview planned for the first game of the season, but I guess that will have to wait until next week.

August 10, 2008
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
3 PM Eastern time (21:00 CET, 20:00 GMT)

Toulouse is always annoying to play against, but now that Johan I-love-to-score-against-Lyon Elmander is at Bolton and Achille Pain-in-the-ass Emana is at Real Betis, hopefully things will be a little easier.

My second favorite signing of the season- and I'm sure Cris' favorite- was realized on Monday. John Mensah is officially Lyon's new left-center back. After weeks of waiting for Sebastian Squillaci's transfer to FC Sevilla to be finalized, Mensah is Lyonnais.

Although we've all been waiting for the eventual signing of The Rock, John Mensah -which should happen today, Monday- there are other smaller happenings in the Mercato. I apologize for the shortness of the piece, but transfer news is scant lately. I thought I'd throw in some tiny morcels of info to keep the stomach growling to a minimum for those of us who are genuine transfer news junkies, and for those of us who don't read French.

Sebastien Squillaci is officially gone. Final price was €6.25m plus another half million in incentives, which is more than double what Lyon originally purchased him for two years ago.

In his press conference, Squillaci said that he wanted a new adventure and to continue progressing his career.

Nothing major to report on the transfer front. Most of the info from Inara's last transfer post is still up to date. Here's the latest:

OUT:

Gregory Coupet: Greg's transfer to Atletico Madrid has been finalized.

The latest news from this week...Due to the amount of material covered, I didn't post links to the original sources like I normally do, but if you want them, let me know.

OUTGOING:

FRED: Is it just me, or does Fred spend an inordinate amount of time making life difficult for the rest of us?