A day after five-times champions Lyon were stunned 1-0 at home by Rennes, their first defeat of the season, PSG suffered a league disaster that will have comparatively more serious consequences.

Daniel Cousin proved the hero on the night for the visitors, scoring five minutes after he came on in the second half and then claiming his second goal five minutes later to hand Lens the lead after PSG had opened the scoring through Sylvain Armand in the 26th minute.

After Lens hammered their superiority home with a late strike by Olivier Thomert, it became crystal clear that Portuguese striker Pauleta, who is suspended for PSG until after the match with Le Mans next week, is more influential than first thought.Lens' fifth consecutive victory over PSG means they move up to fourth place on 21 points, albeit 10 adrift of runaway leaders Lyon who have a nine-point advantage on second-placed surprise package Nancy.

Lens coach Francis Gillot had to endure a first half dominated by PSG, and admitted he had been forced to give his players a half-time talking-to.

"We've practically gone to sleep in the first half, we were losing all our duels and just weren't aggressive enough. I wasn't happy at half-time," he said.

"In the second half the players thankfully woke up to that fact. We began to control possession and we showed ourselves to be handy on the counter attacks.

"The fact that Daniel Cousin is back on top form was an immense help to the team."

Guy Lacombe's PSG remain 12th in the table on just 15 points, with the likes of Sochaux, Le Mans and Toulouse all above them.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas meanwhile launched a broadside after their setback on Saturday, pointing the finger at French league officials who he feels are against his five-times consecutive champions.

Despite a late Lyon fightback Stephane Mbia's opener for Rennes proved enough to end the leaders' bid to match a league record of 10 straight wins.

But barely three days after their midweek Champions League encounter against Dynamo Kiev, Aulas felt they might not have lost the points had they played on Sunday instead.

"Why did we play Saturday afternoon when we had to play in Kiev on Wednesday night?" said Aulas.

"Every time we make a request to the league, they refuse it with a nauseating excuse."

It was not all bad news for Lyon, though, as their closest rivals Marseille missed the chance to cut the lead to eight points after being stunned 1-0 at home by Lorient.

It was Marseille's fourth defeat in their last six league matches and has seen them lose 11 points to Lyon since starting the season neck-and-neck with their rivals.

Marseille now sit in sixth, but 11 points behind Lyon.

Monaco remain bottom after they were held 0-0 at home by Nice, although it could have been worse as Nice's Brazilian midfielder Ederson missed a penalty four minutes from time.