Angers will come back next season for a fourth successive season in France’s top flight, having spent the middle part of this campaign flirting with relegation before finishing strongly to kick clear of trouble.
Over the course of the summer, they had lost a number of key players in their ranks, most notably Cheikh Ndoye, Famara Diedhiou and Nicolas Pepe, who had been key figures in allowing them to survive the previous season, yet they actually started the season reasonably well. However, they were unable to make much headway up the standings due to their propensity to draw – six of their first eight matches were tied.
It left them in a somewhat precarious position, particularly as Karl Toko Ekambi, who had arrived from Sochaux in the summer, was the only player scoring goals. Sure enough, a downturn came in the autumn and a run of four defeats in five matches meant that they were sucked into the relegation zone, where they spent Christmas, despite beating Dijon on December 20.
Important home wins were scored against Troyes and Amiens yet going into the last weekend of February, they were still second bottom. After losing 1-0 at home to Saint-Etienne, they kicked clear of the bottom three impressively.
Stephane Moulin’s side rediscovered their hard-nosed defensive qualities that had served them so well in previous seasons. They would concede only two goals against Paris Saint-Germain before they had secured their survival with a couple of rounds of the season still to play.
Angers were, however, still cutting things a little fine – had they not scored two injury-time goals in Metz, which ultimately saw them safe, they might well have been in a nervy position on the final day of the season.
Moulin’s men were safe this time around, but this was a warning that they need to improve.
