Saint-Etienne: The Tottenham Hotspur of France’s Rhône Derby

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” A saying used often in England, it comes from the French phrase meaning the more things change, the more they stay the same. Tottenham fans might be feeling they can relate to such a saying around now, after witnessing yet another defeat to rivals Arsenal in the North London derby. They’re not the only ones. Over in France, Saint-Etienne are experiencing similar emotions of grave disappointment after losing their own derby match, 1-0 against Olympique Lyonnais.

Saint-Etienne’s remarkably bad run in this fixture continued last weekend as Lyon walked away from the 98th Rhône derby narrow 1-0 winners. It is now 15 years and 20 meetings since supporters of Les Verts have experienced a win over their local rivals, and to make matters worse the winning goal was scored by none other than former Saint-Etienne player Bafétimbi Gomis.

In a close, tense encounter fought in a cauldron of noise between two teams trying desperately not to let their supporters down, it always seemed likely the game would be settled either by a mistake or a moment of magic. That turned out to be the case.

Unfortunately for Jérémie Janot however it was the former rather than the latter, as the ASSE keeper softly palmed a Kim Kallstrom corner straight to Gomis allowing the Lyon striker to tap home the winner from close range in the 83rd minute. It was a huge mistake from Janot who could barely conceal his own sense of embarrassment, slumping to the floor in humiliation, head in hands at the sheer enormity of the error he had just committed. As a man known well for his own anti-Lyon sentiment it must have hurt double.

That it was Gomis who got on the end of the mistake will also very much have pained those of a green persuasion. Left on the bench until the 73rd minute, Gomis’ entrance onto the field he used to call home was greeted with an enormous outpouring of jeers by home fans keen to remind Gomis of the treacherous act he committed in swapping Saint-Etienne green for Lyon white.

Gomis was once highly thought of by l’ASSE fans and nicknamed La Panthère for his panther-style goal celebrations – a nostalgic hat-tip to former Les Verts favourite Alex Dias de Almeida who celebrated his goals similarly. The relationship soured after an indifferent 2008/2009 season however, and in summer 2009 Gomis controversially became only the sixth player to transfer directly from Saint-Etienne to bitter rivas Lyon.

How inevitable it was then that Gomis would have the final say, deciding the game with his 5th league goal for l’OL. Perhaps as a direct result of the torrent of abuse the France international received at Stade Geoffrey-Guichard, Gomis did not hesitate to celebrate passionately his goal.

The frustrating thing for Saint-Etienne fans is that while they haven’t managed to beat Lyon since 1994, Les Verts are not Spurs-like in their capacity for complete derby day capitulation. Games between the two are often tight affairs settled by the odd goal and six of the last ten games have ended up as draws. Despite this they just haven’t been able to win one. The gap is small but a gap it remains nonetheless, one reflected by their respective league positions. Alain Perrin’s side are now 16th in France’s Ligue 1 while Lyon move up to 2nd place, 2 points behind league leaders and champions Bordeaux.

“We feel hugely frustrated,” Saint-Etienne coach Perrin lamented after the defeat. “We felt we were equal to Lyon and rattled them enough to deserve at least a point from the match.”

Their wait for a first derby win since April 1994 continues.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf6jNXqxx6o]

Bafetimbi Gomis, France, French Ligue 1, Olympique Lyonnais, Saint Etienne