Lyon reeled off their seventh consecutive league win on Sunday, the 2-0 defeat of 10-man Metz pushing them four points clear of out-of-sorts Marseille at the top of Ligue 1.
Marseille's loss at Nice on Friday left the way open for the red-hot former champions to tighten their grip at the top of the table.
And they did not let the chance go begging, with a 31st minute penalty from Alexandre Lacazette and a late second from Corentin Tolisso undoing relegation-threatened Metz.
The only downside for Lyon came when Lacazette, the league's top scorer with 21 goals, had to come off with a thigh problem minutes after his spot-kick, awarded for defender Guido Milan's foul on Rachid Ghezzal.
Milan picked up a harsh red card for his indiscretion.
Coach Hubert Fournier confirmed that Lacazette would miss next week's trip to Monaco and was doubtful for the game against champions Paris Saint-Germain the following week.
"We'll have to wait for a full report from the club's medical staff before we know how long he will be out," Fournier said.
"We've got two important matches against title rivals and there's never a good time for these things to happen, but even less so now."
But Fournier expressed satisfaction with the result.
"We feel like we've done a job today. We were under a lot of pressure because everyone thought we were going to win, but Metz posed us a lot of problems," he said.
"We had to be patient to break down a well-ordered defence and we showed great discipline in not allowing Metz many opportunities and not being caught on the break."
Evian helped their hopes of avoiding relegation with a 1-0 win over Toulouse which pushed them three points clear of the drop zone.
Later Sunday, defending champions Paris Saint-Germain, who knocked Bordeaux out of the French Cup in midweek, face a tricky trip to St Etienne. PSG are third, seven points behind Lyon, with St Etienne a point away in fourth.
Source: AFP
