Despite a slight drop in form at the end of last season, Lyon won the League in April with six games remaining and were 17 points ahead of second-placed Marseille while third-placed Toulouse were a massive 23 points adrift.

With the summer departure of Gerard Houllier, disciplinarian Alain Perrin took over as coach of the six-time champions and already got the club off to winning ways by claiming the Peace Cup pre-season tournament in South Korea in July and the French Champions Trophy against Sochaux on Saturday.

"It has created a huge amount of solidarity and morale is high," said Perrin after the win in Asia.

However, the newly-appointed coach, who in the summer saw the departures of a plethora of talented players including Eric Abidal, Florent Malouda and Tiago to Barcelona, Chelsea and Juventus respectively, is under no illusions about the tasks ahead and the pressure that comes with being the team to beat.

"Lyon will be up against clubs such as Marseille, Monaco, Paris Saint Germain and Bordeaux.

"We are our own major threat. The danger is that everybody touts us as favourites and this could have a paralysing effect on us. The squad was shattered (last season).

"Last year Lyon went through a troubled period at one stage but they were so many points ahead of the others that it didn't have serious consequences. So you have to bare in mind that we can still be fragile."

Lyon, who captured the signature of Italian World Cup winning defender Fabio Grosso in July, commence their title defence on August 5 on home soil against Auxerre and could miss first-choice goalkeeper Gregory Coupet for the first four months of the season due to a knee injury.

Meanwhile, Marseille, whose highest-profile summer signings included Boudewijn Zenden and Djibril Cisse from Liverpool, Algerian international Karim Ziani and Frenchman Benoit Cheyrou both from Auxerre, will open their 2007-2008 title challenge on August 4 away at newly-promoted Strasbourg.

The Mediterranean giants, who are the only French club to win the Champions League in 1993, will have added motivation this season having booked a direct qualification spot to Europe's top club competition thanks to their second-placed finish in the domestic league last term.

In a thrilling final day in the 2006-2007 season, in which a number of clubs were in the running for the last Champions League qualifying spot, Toulouse secured their place when they beat direct rivals Bordeaux 3-1 to finish third.

Toulouse make the trip to Valenciennes in their season-opener on August 4. The same fixture last term ended in a goalless draw, but Toulouse put three past their opponents without reply in the reverse fixture at the Stadium Municipal.

World Cup winning defender Laurent Blanc is set to make his managerial debut after Bordeaux hired the 42-year-old in June, replacing Brazilian Ricardo, to guide the team through the 2007-2008 season.

Blanc's first domestic league match in charge of the club is against Lens on Saturday.

Meanwhile Paris Saint Germain will look to produce a more positive season in 2007-2008 after battling with relegation throughout 2006-2007.

The club from the capital finished a lowly 15th, 33 points behind Lyon, the club's worst performance since 1987-1988.

Paul le Guen's side have a tricky first fixture as they take on French Cup winners Sochaux.

The French Cup champions kept a clean sheet against PSG last season and also dumped the Parisians out of quarterfinals of the Cup on their way to glory.

Metz bounced back up to the top flight as second division champions and will kick-start their season away at Le Mans.

Along with Strasbourg and Metz making the move into France's elite are Caen, who begin their campaign at home against Nice.