AS Monaco continued their dismal start to the season with a 2-0 loss at Saint-\u00c9tienne on Friday. A deftly-taken double from Tunisian midfielder Wahbi Khazri was enough to see off Les Mon\u00e9gasques, who had chances of their own but were deservedly beaten on the night. They now have not won since their opening day victory against Nantes and languish in 18th<\/sup> position. Saint-\u00c9tienne, by contrast, momentarily climbed to second spot, only to be later ousted by Lille and Montpelier.<\/p>\n The match got off to an inauspicious start for Monaco when a misplaced backpass in the 11th<\/sup> minute allowed the lively Khazri a sight of goal, though keeper Diego Benaglio was alert to the danger and hacked clear. Saint-\u00c9tienne striker Lo\u00efs Diony should have had the ball in the back of the net minutes later but couldn\u2019t make clean contact with Khazri\u2019s cutback. The early onslaught continued as R\u00e9my Cabella clipped the crossbar with a long-range effort on 26 minutes.<\/p>\n Monaco almost took an unlikely lead moments later when a slip by Saint-\u00c9tienne captain Lo\u00efc Perrin allowed Moussa Sylla to charge through clean on goal. Sylla rounded keeper St\u00e9phane Rouffier but Perrin made amends, getting back in time to block his shot off the line. Monaco had another chance to break the deadlock in the 34th<\/sup> minute but skipper Radamel Falcao could only shoot straight at Rouffier, before Khazri showed the Colombian how it should be done. Khazri timed his run perfectly to collect a superb pass from Ole Kristian Seln\u00e6s and in the same movement, swivelled towards goal and rifled a low shot into the bottom corner. Benaglio could do nothing.<\/p>\n Monaco pushed hard for an equaliser after the interval, with Falcao guilty of a glaring miss on 48 minutes and moments later, Rouffier was again called into action to deny Pel\u00e9 at full stretch. Those misses were to prove costly, however, when Khazri doubled his tally for the evening with a superbly struck second. A mistake in midfield by Pel\u00e9 gave up possession in a dangerous area. The ball was stabbed through to Khazri, whose first touch was not the best, but the Tunisian pounced upon the loose ball to lash in a low drive from outside the area.<\/p>\n With over half an hour remaining, there was still plenty of time for Monaco to get back into the game \u2013 but aside from another poor effort from Falcao in front of an open goal, Leonardo Jardim\u2019s team could not muster much of a response.<\/p>\n The loss consolidates one of their poorest starts to a season in recent history and heaps further pressure on beleaguered coach Jardim. The glory of their title-winning season two years ago now seems like a distant memory, although it should be remembered that a host of star players \u2013 including World Cup winners Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Thomas Lemar and Benjamin Mendy, as well as Bernardo Silva, Joao Moutinho and Fabinho \u2013 have all been allowed to leave in that time.<\/p>\n By contrast, Saint-\u00c9tienne are enjoying a very bright start to the season and have claimed 15 points from their opening eight fixtures. They initially rose to second position after their victory, though wins on Sunday for Lille and Montpelier saw both teams overhaul them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wahbi Khazri double compounds Monaco\u2019s problems as Saint-\u00c9tienne climb to second AS Monaco continued their dismal start to the season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[],"post_sectags":[],"post_format":[],"class_list":["post-3977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n