Kévin Monnet-Paquet got the opening goal as AS Saint-Etienne steamrollered Dijon FCO 3-0 on Saturday to maintain their push for a top-three finish.
AS Saint-Etienne 3-0 Dijon FCO 
THE MATCH
Saint-Etienne had not lost any of their six top-flight meetings with Dijon, and the hosts were not in a generous mood despite the impending Yuletide celebrations.
Cédric Yambéré was required to block a Rémy Cabella shot that looked to have beaten Bobby Allain (12′), and though Saint-Etienne required Loïc Perrin to make a saving tackle on Benjamin Jeannot (13′), the hosts were the more dangerous.
Loïs Diony, against his former club, found the side-netting (16′) and Wahbi Khazri had an effort ruled out for offside (25′) as did Monnet-Paquet (42′) only for VAR to finally give the ex-FC Lorient man the goal to put Saint-Etienne ahead before the break.
Beric adds third
Cabella came close to a second in the opening minute of the second half (46′) before Khazri did double their lead — Monnet-Paquet was involved in the build-up, playing in the Tunisia international, who crashed home his ninth of the campaign (64′).
Allain denied Pierre-Yves Polomat a third (69′) but couldn’t stop Robert Beric, who had replaced Diony, heading home from an Ole Selnaes free-kick (83′) to leave Jean-Louis Gasset’s men in fifth, level on points with fourth-placed Montpellier Hérault SC (who have a game in hand) and just two adrift of bitter rivals Olympique Lyonnais in third.
THE PLAYER: Wahbi Khazri
The former SC Bastia and Girondins de Bordeaux man is clearly enjoying his return to France, and again gave Saint-Etienne a cutting edge they have been lacking since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s departure.
THE STAT: 2
Saint-Etienne and leaders Paris Saint-Germain are the only sides in Ligue 1 Conforama with an unbeaten home record this season.
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