French champions Lille finally got their title defence back on track with a 2-1 home win over Montpellier and surprise package Angers provisionally went top of the table after beating visiting Stade Rennais 2-0 on Sunday.
Lille celebrated their first league win of the season thanks to goals from Yusuf Yazici and Jonathan David, with Montpellier ending the match with 10 men after their defender Junior Sambia was sent off in the second half.
Yazici side-footed Lille ahead on the stroke of halftime but the visitors replied instantly as Gaetan Laborde levelled with the last kick of the first half, steering in a low Stephy Mavididi cross from close range.
David swung the match Lille's way in the 57th minute with a superb individual effort before Sambia was red-carded in the 73rd for a second bookable foul.
Angers continued to impress as did promoted Clermont Foot, who kept their unbeaten record intact after fighting back from two goals down in a 2-2 home draw with Metz.
Angers have 10 points from four games, one more than Paris St Germain who visit Reims in the evening fixture with new signing Lionel Messi starting on the bench after joining the French giants from Barcelona earlier this month.
Rennes had Loic Bade sent off for a second yellow card in the 43rd minute before a comedy of errors in their six-yard box allowed Sofiane Boufal to fire Angers ahead in the 57th.
Visiting goalkeeper Alfred Gomis lost possession after playing a nonchalant one-two with a defender and Boufal pounced to tap the ball into an empty net before Mohamed Ali Cho sealed the win in the 88th minute with a composed finish.
Clermont, who are playing in the top flight for the first time, overcame a two-goal deficit for the second time in a row after fighting back in last Sunday's 3-3 draw at Lyon, with Kosovo striker Elbasan Rashani in the spotlight again.
Metz raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to an Ibrahima Niane penalty and an own goal by home keeper Arthur Desmas before Rashani, who netted twice against Lyon as a late substitute, engineered Clermont's comeback.
Rashani delivered a sublime cross for his team's first goal as Sikou Niakate turned a Mohamed Bayo header into his own net before he levelled in the 58th minute when he slid in to poke home a loose ball from close range.
Clermont had a goal disallowed and missed several chances in the closing stages of the rip-roaring contest, with the result leaving them third on eight points from four games.
Monaco eased some of the pressure off their coach Niko Kovac as a Sofiane Diop double helped them beat Troyes 2-1 away for their first league win of the season.
Diop struck in either half to cancel out a Ruben Aguilar own goal, his second in two games. He had also scored at the wrong end in Wednesday's 3-2 aggregate defeat by Shakhtar Donesk which denied Monaco a Champions League group stage berth.
Elsewhere, Lens led and then came from behind to salvage a 2-2 home draw with Lorient while Strasbourg beat visiting Brest 3-1 after picking up one point in their opening three games.
(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
