RC Strasbourg Alsace coach Julien Stéphan is keeping a lid on the ebullience at the in-form club after his side made it three in a row - and a fifth win in six matches - with a 2-0 victory in their rescheduled Round 19 clash in Clermont.
With their 2-0 defeat to Marseille in Round 18 the only blot on an otherwise perfect run sine the beginning of December - and their only defeat since the end of October - Julien Stéphan's Strasbourg are in rip-roaring form.
They have scored 15 goals in their last six matches, with top scorer Ludovic Ajorque sixth on the Ligue 1 Uber Eats scorers chart with ten strikes and Habib Diallo (8) and Adrien Thomasson (7) in the top 12, while conceding just two - both in the defeat to Marseille.
No need to get carried away...
So it's fair to say that Strasbourg, who climbed to fourth place thanks to Wednesday's win, are in stunning form - but you wouldn't necessarily guess it from listening to Stéphan in his press conference after the 2-0 win in Clermont on Wednesday night.
"Being fourth doesn't change much, but it does validate the players' hard work," he said after seeing Kévin Gameiro (44') and Cédric Hountondji (77', o.g.) do the scoring in the match rescheduled after fog prevented play back in December. "Above all, it's our third victory in 2022 - all of them won in different contexts - and that is extremely promising. We remain very humble."
But yeah it's pretty good
When pressed, the 41-year-old did admit that his side had done well despite betraying his perfectionist tendencies.
"It's a deserved win. We started the game very well, with good collective movements," he said. "We lacked depth in our attacks at times, but at 2-0, we controlled the game well tactically."
Strasbourg's next match is a trip to struggling Bordeaux in Ligue 1 Uber Eats Round 22 action on Sunday afternoon (15:00 CET).