Paris Saint-Germain v Bordeaux: Thiago Silva expecting big season after impressive start

Thiago Silva has confidence Paris Saint-Germain are in for another big season ahead of their Ligue 1 clash against Bordeaux at Parc des Princes on Friday.

PSG have made an emphatic start to 2015-16, winning their first four Ligue 1 games and the Trophee des Champions without conceding a goal in the five matches.

That success has come even though star close-season signing Angel di Maria was only fit enough to play in their last game against Monaco and Zlatan Ibrahimovic only returned from injury himself in the same game.

Javier Pastore (calf) and new arrival Layvin Kurzawa (groin) are the only remaining fitness concerns for Laurent Blanc, who Thiago Silva is aware has a very tough task to select a starting XI each week given the options at his disposal.

“In the league we have started great – compared to last year we have improved mentally and our biggest opponent is ourselves,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We have two strong players for each area of the field, we brought in a champion like Di Maria, who will play with champions like Ibra, [Ezequiel] Lavezzi and [Edinson] Cavani, who have stayed with us. It is up to Blanc to find out and choose the best team.”

Having won a domestic treble last year, Thiago Silva did concede that making meaningful progress Champions League continued to be a priority

“We have a big European objective,” he said. “We ended up in a tough group with Real Madrid, but we want to get to the knockout stage from first place. 

“It may be our season, but keep an eye on Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real as well as the two Manchester teams who spent considerable sums.”

Opponents Bordeaux inflicted one of only three Ligue 1 defeats on PSG last season, winning 3-2 in March, although Blanc had got the better of his former club in the league match at Parc des Princes as well as a Coupe de France tie.

Bordeaux finished sixth in 2014-15, but Willy Sagnol’s men have made a mixed start to the new season. They successfully navigated their way through Europa League qualifying and won in their last outing against Nantes, but that was their first victory from the opening four league matches. 

Former PSG midfielder Clement Chantome is prevented from facing his old side due to suspension, while Cedric Yambere is also banned.

Cheick Diabate, Jaroslav Plasil, Diego Contento, Gregory Sertic and Ludovic Sane have all been injury concerns for Bordeaux in recent weeks.