It is 15 January 2017. Monaco are top of Ligue 1. Leonardo Jardim’s side left Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome with a triumphant 4-1 win and three points to move them above Nice. And there they remained until Valère Germain rounded off an injury-time counterattack to seal a win against St Étienne and the Ligue 1 title in May. That victory against Marseille included a double from Bernardo Silva, a delightful lob from Thomas Lemar and an 89th-minute cameo from Kylian Mbappé. Up to this point, Mbappé had started only four Ligue 1 games. Monaco made it to the summit of Ligue 1 without him and a 6-1 win against the same opponents on Sunday night is the biggest signal yet that, even with their prize asset on the verge of joining PSG, they could do it again.

The shift in balance of power between Ligue 1’s top two over the summer has been seismic. Without a ball being kicked, the arrival of Neymar coupled with the exodus from the principality has thrust the momentum back towards PSG. A trio of Neymar-led victories later, most notably a 6-2 mauling of Toulouse on 20 August, largely with 10 men, the Ligue 1 title would appear to be Paris-bound once more, the case for Monaco’s defence apparently thin at best. But Jardim and his Monaco side have been here before. A year ago, with PSG’s 31-point winning margin fresh in their collective memory, Monaco opened what turned out to be a title-winning campaign with an underwhelming 2-2 draw at home to Guingamp and were dismantled 4-0 by Nice in September. PSG were clear favourites once more.

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Nevertheless, Monaco were champions, embarrassing PSG on two fronts in snatching their league crown and making the semi-finals of the Champions League, a feat PSG have not achieved under Qatari ownership. Crucially, however, Monaco did it their way. Going toe-to-toe with the spending power of QSI was short-lived as a switch in the club’s recruitment policy forced Monaco’s wily vice-president Vadim Vasilyev to be more prudent in his transfer dealings. An investment in youth became the focus.

Player turnover and the evolution of the squad is now central to Monaco’s ethos. Their title-winning side was shrewdly built; targets were identified, acquired and nurtured. The rangy Brazilian midfield general Fabinho was enlisted as a full-back, initially on loan, before moving into midfield and signing permanently for £5m from the mid-table Portuguese club Rio Ave. Now 23, the league’s top performer last season is also said to be about to be sold to PSG for a deal likely to be worth €60m. Despite the vast resources of their oligarch backer, Monaco are not PSG, their operating budget is roughly a third of their rivals, but this, in theory, does not make as sizeable a difference as it might.

Monaco knew they would lose players this summer. Their original plan was to accept the departures of Silva, a full-back (eventually Benjamin Mendy) and Fabinho’s midfield lieutenant, Tiemoué Bakayoko. The three players sold for a combined £135m, two of whom Monaco knew could be swiftly replaced. The 20-year-old Youri Tielemans arrived from Anderlecht for €25m to assist João Moutinho in filling the Bakayoko-shaped hole in midfield while Almamy Touré and Jorge, both 21, have shown they are capable of stepping into Mendy’s role at full-back. This is a necessary part of the Monaco model, although the losses of Fabinho and Mbappé were ones they hoped to avoid, it is model that has been successful financially and on the pitch.

Lemar, Fabinho, Bakayoko and Silva are all examples of players signed for comparatively modest fees from relative obscurity who are now worth upwards of €40m. Looking to repeat the feat, Monaco have again been gathering exciting burgeoning talents this summer. The widely sought-after Tielemans aside, Rennes’ direct, pacy forward Adama Diakhaby, billed as the next Ousmane Dembélé, has joined Radamel Falcao in attack, scoring in the 6-1 shredding of a hapless Marseille on Sunday night. Soualiho Meïté, 23, was key to Zulte Waregem’s surprise title bid in Belgium last season while the Dutch full-back Terence Kongolo was an ever-present with Feyenoord as they recaptured the Eredivisie crown. Anderlecht’s 22-year-old midfield fulcrum Leander Dendoncker, some Belgian observers marking his talents as superior to his former partner Tielemans, is ready and on his way to replace Fabinho.

While player turnover has been the most eye-catching aspect of the Monaco off-season, the list of players who have stayed remains encouraging. Their title-winning back four remain largely intact as Kamil Glik, Djibril Sidibé (who both scored in the win against Marseille) and Jemerson, who has also developed into an adept and assured centre-back over his 18-month spell at the principality club, continue to perform admirably. Despite wide-ranging interest, Lemar looks set to stay in Monaco’s midfield alongside João Moutinho while Falcao has started the campaign in outstanding form, scoring seven in his first four league games. The question remains, however, with Jardim’s jewel, Mbappé, set to join PSG this week for a fee worth up to €190m including bonuses, can his squad cope with the loss?

Players burst on to the French footballing scene with some regularity and are quickly swept off to bigger clubs; it is one the most exciting aspects of following Ligue 1. Ousmane Dembélé, Sofiane Boufal, Adam Ounas and Corentin Tolisso are recent examples but Mbappé finds himself in a bracket of his own.

Comparisons with Thierry Henry and Brazil’s Ronaldo are completely justified while, at 18, the €190m price tag is more understandable than many of the fees paid in recent weeks. His unerring finishing and alarmingly quick change of direction alone would make an asset to any team in world football.

Nevertheless, returning to January, Monaco made it to the top of Ligue 1 without his influence. In fact, he was not even truly considered first choice until the first leg of the Champions League tie against Manchester City in February. Obviously, much has changed in the capital during their last year, and Mbappé is undeniably a world-class talent, but Monaco have proven they can succeed without their teenage sensation, even scoring more league goals (56) in the first half of last season than the second (51).

A Mbappé-less Monaco dismantling an admittedly slow and understrength Marseille was the latest sign that Jardim and his Monaco charges have designs on the Ligue 1 title once more. They remain an aggressive, attacking and compelling side. They may not score goals at the same rate as last season but clear daylight remains between them and the chasing pack of Ligue 1 clubs. Somehow usurping PSG and Neymar would easily surpass any achievements of last season, especially, as is expected, the Paris club do poach Fabinho and Mbappé before the end of the transfer window. But as Monaco continue to carefully and quietly reconstruct their side, with the Ajax forward Kasper Dolberg the latest likely arrival, PSG should remember that this time last year, a Monaco title win seemed implausible, too.

Talking points

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nantes’ Ciprian Tatarusanu thwarts Lyon. Photograph: Stephane Mahe/Reuters

• While the Nantes goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu did not have quite the same eye-catching display against Lyon on Saturday as he had two weeks prior against Marseille, he nevertheless kept a clean sheet, highlighted by a particularly impressive stop on Bertrand Traoré in the early stages. The clean sheet was his second in succession, no mean feat in front of a defence who have been hit hard by injuries and suspension. In a season in which they have scored only once as Claudio Ranieri tinkers, unsurprisingly, with his tactics and personnel, Nantes have four points in as many matches – and much of that is surely down to the lanky Romanian. Second to Guingamp’s Karl-Johan Johnsson in saves per match, the Nantes stopper’s have surely been more impressive than the Swede’s behind a leaky, often makeshift, defence. As the attack have struggled after thriving under the departed Sérgio Conceição (Rémy Cabella, a potential loan arrival from Marseille, could yet help matters in this regard), Nantes remain above the drop zone, if not comfortably, at least definitively, on the strength of their goalkeeper. The signing of Tatarusanu, No1 with Fiorentina for the past two seasons, was seen as something of a coup, even if the writing was on the wall in Florence, given the club’s massive summer sell-off. Thus far, he has looked every inch a fine return on his €2.5m price tag as the quality stopper that the team craved. If Ranieri can figure out the team’s attack, not only will relegation cease to be a worry but the league’s European contenders could be looking over their shoulders.

• Nantes have invested heavily by their standards this summer and will be frustrated not to have seen more of an immediate return thus far. Their worries in this regard, though, pale in comparison to those of Rennes. Nantes’ Breton neighbours have recorded a net spend approaching €20m this summer, highlighted by the signings of Ismaïla Sarr and Faitout Maouassa, yet they have only two points to show for their troubles, mediocre home draws against Dijon and Troyes. Rennes’ form was perilously poor in the first half of the calendar year and little seems to have changed, despite their investment. Firmin Mubélé opened the scoring at Toulouse on Saturday with a brilliant goal, displaying impressive acceleration as he blew past Yannick Cahuzac to score his third goal in two matches, putting lie to those who would argue the side needs another centre-forward to improve. Despite the Congolese opening the scoring, Toulouse drew level soon enough, with a clumsy foul from Ramy Bensebaini on Jimmy Durmaz earning the Swede a penalty, which he duly converted. The young Algerian is a capable and mobile centre-back but he is never a left-back and his continued inclusion in that position is one of many baffling decisions made this season by Christian Gourcuff, especially with the proven Ludovic Baal a capable option in reserve. The veteran manager has persisted with his trademark 4-4-1-1, despite, as last season, a 4-3-3 being seemingly a better fit for the talent on hand, with Sanjin Prcic, Maouassa or Nicolas Janvier slotting into midfield alongside the more defensively minded Benjamin André and Benjamin Bourigeaud. Rennes’ hierarchy put their full faith in Gourcuff in a historic summer spending spree but the manager looks unlikely to repay that faith any time soon as his stubborn adherence to his preferred system is failing to get the best out of what is undoubtedly a very talented squad. The international break should allow the team to refocus and hopefully welcome Yoann Gourcuff back into the fold but if results continue as they have done, the manager could find himself in real trouble before October arrives.

• It would have been foolish to expect anything else, given their imperious win against Toulouse the previous weekend, but Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-0 victory against St Étienne on Friday laid down another serious marker to any opponents who may have entertained the hope of a title race, although perhaps not in the way one may have expected. Óscar García’s inscrutable decision to change tactics to a 3-4-3, with Bryan Dabo deployed on the left wing, made matters slightly easier for the hosts but with Neymar slightly off the boil, it was not all PSG. There was a bit of fortuitousness in the way the hosts opened the scoring, with Saidy Janko tugging back Edinson Cavani in the box, and by the time the second goal went in, with Thiago Motta prodding home from a free-kick at close range, Alphonse Areola had already had to make a pair of fine stops on the break. The academy product, despite having impressed on several season-long loans spells, found himself largely behind Kevin Trapp last season, the German regarded as a safer pair of hands, even as he was far from immune from the odd gaffe. This season, however, Areola seems improved, as he has been beaten only twice in four matches, with one of those being an own goal. Areola will have to face sterner tests in the weeks to come in the form of a league showdown against Lyon and the start of the Champions League but, for the moment, he looks set to begin to fulfil the promise he has shown. Without him, Friday’s seemingly comfortable win could have been a much nervier affair and Unai Emery will surely sleep easier, given his side’s decisive start to the season, in no small part thanks to Areola.

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• While it may have been somewhat lost in the shuffle of Saturday’s multiplex, Amiens recorded the shock result of the weekend, winning 3-0 at home against Nice. The Picardy club looked bright against St Étienne in their previous game but were unfortunate not to find the back of the net. They had no such qualms against Lucien Favre’s weary side, scoring twice inside half an hour to secure their first Ligue 1 goals. Gaël Kakuta opened the scoring with a devious free-kick routine and Moussa Konaté added to the hosts’ tally with a vicious header at the near post from a corner but, despite ceding most of the possession to the visitors, Amiens looked as assured and combative as they had the week before. Combative, especially, in the form of the young midfielder Tanguy Ndombélé, who thoroughly dominated the midfield despite making only his second start of the season. The youngster was linked with Lyon and St Étienne over the summer but has stayed put and looks to be one to watch going forward. With his combination of bustling energy and ability on the ball, it is no wonder bigger clubs were after his services.

Results PSG 3-0 St Étienne, Nantes 0-0 Lyon, Bordeaux 2-1 Troyes, Angers 1-1 Lille, Caen 1-0 Metz, Guingamp 2-0

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