Reims showed its intent to attack home or away with an impressive 4-2 win at Montpellier on Sunday to move level on points with fifth-placed Marseille in the French league.

Montpellier proudly boasted the second-best defensive record in the league before losing 5-1 at league leader Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday. Now make that nine goals conceded in two games after only allowing 25 in the previous 24.

Montpellier dropped down to seventh place as its defense fell apart again with forward Remi Oudin scoring twice as Reims recovered from conceding an early goal.

Marseille did enough to stay fifth on goal difference after scraping a 1-1 draw at Rennes, thanks to forward Valere Germain's first league goal since late September. He netted with a neat glancing header from Florian Thauvin's cross in the 56th minute after midfielder Benjamin Andre had given the home side a seventh-minute lead.

Ninth-placed Rennes played without former France winger Hatem Ben Arfa, who was dropped after failing to come to the team's pre-match get-together on Saturday evening. Rennes coach Julien Stephan said Ben Arfa was "exhausted" and played down the incident.

"I spoke to him on the phone, he apologized," Stephan said, adding that Ben Arfa is unlikely to be punished. "Things will take care of themselves naturally."

In other games, Nantes beat Bordeaux 1-0 and strugglers Toulouse and Caen drew 1-1.

BOOST FOR NANTES

Nantes moved further away from the relegation zone and up to 14th place by beating Bordeaux. Center half Nicolas Pallois volleyed home from a corner in the 51st minute.

Pallois was close friends with Emiliano Sala and attended the Argentine striker's funeral last weekend. Sala died at the age of 28 when the plane he was in crashed into the English Channel last month. The single-engine aircraft was flying from Nantes to Cardiff, where Sala was due to start a new career playing for the Welsh capital's Premier League club.

Pallois and Sala played together for second-tier Niort during the 2013-14 season and at the start of the following season for Bordeaux before Sala joined Caen on loan and then Nantes the following season. They became teammates again when Pallois left Bordeaux to join Sala at Nantes two years ago.

MBAPPE MAGIC

Kylian Mbappe starred again as runaway league leader PSG beat Nimes 3-0 at home on Saturday to move 17 points clear of Lille, having played one less game.

The 20-year-old France star scored twice to extend his league-leading tally to 22 goals and become the youngest player to reach 50 league goals in French soccer history.