>> LIVE COMMENTARY, SCORING & STATS

Both teams have picked up just five points from their opening five matches, a long way from the totals they would have hoped — and had been expected — to boast at this stage of the campaign.

Nice were actually without a victory and languishing in the bottom three after four games, licking their wounds following a 3-0 mauling by Marseille last weekend. They had failed to score a goal in over two-and-a-half games of top-flight football, but a brace of penalties — from Andy Delort and new signing Nicolas Pepe — enabled them to get their maiden maximum haul of the campaign with a 2-1 victory at LOSC Lille on Wednesday.

WATCH: Nice net first win of season at Lille

"We're not kickstarting anything with this win. It's just like that, we started badly. I prefer starting badly and finishing well. What counts is the end of the season in June. Let's see where we are then," said Nice coach Lucien Favre, whose team came back from a goal down to win the 100th Ligue 1 Uber Eats encounter between the pair. "There are things to analyse. As I said and I'll say it again: the aim is to build a team that, in two years' time, will regularly contest the podium places in the table. And there's a lot of work to be done."

Jonathan Bamba had given LOSC the lead after just 19 minutes, but Delort levelled three minutes later before handing Pepe the opportunity to score his first goal for the club he has joined on loan from Arsenal just before the half-hour mark.

"Andy is the number one taker, but I asked him if I could take it and he gave it to me. That proves that everyone is good in this team, that they work for each other," said Pepe, who netted for the first time in Ligue 1 since 18 May 2019 while playing for LOSC against another former club, Angers. "Now we have a big game coming up against Monaco. We have to recover well to be able to build on this. This win is going to do us a lot of good."

Monaco's sluggish start can in part be explained by the disappointment in failing to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage, and their difficulties in finishing matches with 11 players. Following red cards for Youssouf Fofana in the draw with Rennes and another for Vanderson in the 4-1 loss at home to Lens, Guillermo Maripan was dismissed as the Stade Louis II witnessed their side going down to an unexpected 4-2 defeat to Troyes on Wednesday.

WATCH: Monaco are taken apart by Troyes

Maripan had actually opened the scoring for Philippe Clément's side allowing new signing Takumi Minamino to register his first goal involvement in Ligue 1 Uber Eats with an assist from a corner. But Monaco's Chile international centre-back then conceded the penalty that brought the visitors level before being dismissed late in the first half for a second bookable offence, which means he will be unavailable for the short trip along the coast to Nice.

"Before the penalty, we hadn't conceded a lot of chances, and the red card changed the balance of play," said Clement, whose team had picked up a point at Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday but are now four league matches without a win. "After that, we continued to create opportunities with ten men. But it's not easy and dropped another three points. It's true we could have done better in the first half, and I told my players that in the dressing room."

Probable teams

Nice: Schmeichel; Todibo, Dante, Viti; Atal, Ramsey, Rosario, Thuram, Bard; Pépé, Delort

Monaco: Nubel; Disasi, Badiashile, Sarr; Vanderson, Fofana, Camara, Henrique; Golovin; Embolo, Ben Yedder

>> VIDEO: Best of Round 5