By Jonathan Johnson (@Jon_LeGossip)

Paris Saint-Germain are romping clear at the top of Ligue 1 this season and their current 21-point lead is likely to grow before the end of the campaign.

Records have tumbled because of Les Parisiens’ dominance and Laurent Blanc’s men could realistically be crowned champions for a fourth consecutive time as early as March. PSG are expected to win Le Championnat every term, as has been the case since the capital club were taken over by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) back in 2011. This is the most dominant the five-time French champions have been in that time though.

The economic disparity between Ligue 1’s financial juggernaut and the rest of the league is huge and has prompted plenty of criticism because of a greater lack of domestic competition for PSG than ever before this term. However, it was not supposed to and should not be this easy for Blanc and his players. Even a similarly dominant Bayern Munich side are not even a full 10 points ahead of their nearest rivals in the German Bundesliga.

So what has gone wrong in Le Championnat?

PSG’s massive financial clout cannot be ignored when looking into why the men from the capital find themselves so far in front this early in the season. However, there are a number of other contributing factors towards Les Parisiens’ whopping advantage. First of all, PSG have been less complacent so far this campaign than in any other term since the arrival of the Qataris. The main reason why last season’s thrilling title battle between the defending champions and a vibrant, young Olympique Lyonnais side went to the last three games of the campaign was largely because it took so long for the capital outfit to finally get going.

Nothing should take away from what Hubert Fournier’s excellent OL team did last term because they were breathtaking at times and consistent for pretty much all of it. However, Les Gones’ struggles with pretty much the same star players this season and the former Stade de Reims tactician’s subsequent departure during the winter break emphasises just how consistent Lyon had to be just to keep pace with an average PSG.

The current Ligue 1 titleholders’ dominance this campaign is in part explained by the fact that there is a clear focus on progress in the UEFA Champions League. After reaching the quarterfinals in each of their last three outings, QSI want the team to go at least one step better and reach the semis. PSG have identified wrapping up the league title as quickly as possible and possibly dropping out of the Coupe de France (the domestic cup with the most awkward schedule from a Champions League point of view) as two potential ways to help themselves achieve their ambitious continental aim.

A lack of domestic complacency from PSG is still not enough to explain the ever-widening chasm between Le Championnat’s leaders and the rest of the field though. The capital club’s domestic rivals, such as Lyon, AS Monaco and Olympique de Marseille, must also shoulder their fair share of blame. Considering that OL managed to keep most of their stars from last season at Parc OL over the summer, Les Gones should be much closer to PSG than they are at present. To be 30 points behind last term’s title rivals at this early stage is simply unacceptable.

Lyon made a disastrous start to the term for a number of reasons. Poor signings were made, such as Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Claudio Beauvue, while the likes of Mathieu Valbuena have really not shown their best for the club so far. A considerable ego problem also developed under Fournier, which contributed towards a number of problems off the pitch in Lyon. Add to that the fact that the squad was not really big enough to cope with both European and domestic competition and it is unsurprising that Fournier is no longer in charge.

The injury suffered by star man Nabil Fekir while on international duty early in the season was also a massive blow. Even without the talented 22-year-old though, Lyon should not have been playing as badly as they did towards the end of 2015 and that had nothing to do with PSG’s financial clout. Monaco are currently second in Ligue 1 and that is arguably where they should expect to be with the quality that they boast. However, like FC Porto in Portugal, Les Monegasques are now a club that sells their best players every summer for big profits and buys in young talent to add value to.

In time, Leonardo Jardim’s outfit should be able to function like Porto and remain competitive in Ligue 1 despite regularly seeing their best players leave. That might not happen for another season or two though, with Joao Moutinho, Bernardo Silva and Fabinho all expected to leave this summer. The principality outfit should not be as far behind PSG as they are at present, but when a radical restructuring of a once ambitious project is forced upon you, there was little choice for Jardim and it is hard not to feel some sympathy.

If anything, the Portuguese actually deserves immense credit for what he has achieved at Stade Louis II so far and out of all of PSG’s under-performing rivals, Monaco perhaps deserve the most slack. The least deserving of sympathy in the chasing pack are Marseille. After years of wretched mismanagement, OM yet again find themselves well off the pace and 29 points behind their fierce rivals from the capital.

In no way is PSG’s financial dominance to blame for Marseille’s recent failures; the current regime at Stade Velodrome is getting everything it deserves. The southern giants suffer because of a lack of intelligent leadership and until the current hierarchy and a number of local problems ailing the club are taken care of, Les Phoceens will continue to fail to live up to their reputation as giants of French football.

PSG have unfair advantage over the rest of Ligue 1 thanks to their wealthy owners, of course they do. So, when they apply themselves in the way that they have done so far this season, nobody can live with them and it is unsurprising to see them romping clear at the top. However, even though PSG leading the way is to be expected, the gap at the top should not be as embarrassingly big as it is right now. Les Parisiens’ domestic rivals can only blame themselves for letting the capital club pull as far clear as they have already this campaign.

There could be a glimmer of hope elsewhere in Ligue 1 though. Last Friday, OGC Nice announced the arrival of a Saudi Arabian investor on the Cote d’Azur.  Les Aiglons are a club with a fertile youth academy, a shiny new stadium for the 2016 UEFA European Championship, a public that enjoys football, a good coach with a track record of nurturing young talent and European football is within reach this season. 

If the arrival of some new investment goes as well as hoped at Allianz Riviera, there could be a new challenger emerging to put pressure on the likes of Lyon, Monaco and Marseille in the chase to be closest to PSG. If similar investment was to materialise for the likes of AS Saint-Etienne, Lille OSC and FC Nantes in the future, then there could potentially be as many as seven clubs in a position to someday put a bit of pressure on PSG instead of the three (and a debatable three at that) currently.