They say football sets children a bad example, yet sometimes those 22 characters under the floodlights can't help but lay down some valuable life lessons.

True, there's the spitting, the swearing and the abusing of referees, but we'll get on to Fabien Barthez in a minute. Consider instead the parent of a Lyon fan stuck in a myopic "that's not fair" groove. Rather than open junior's eyes with a lengthy discourse on the Spanish Civil War, now he or she can simply point to the child's Grégory Coupet poster and ask, "how do you think Nantes feel?"

"Sickened," the child might reply if quoting Lyon boss Gérard Houllier, and although nobody should encourage that type of behaviour, for once Anfield's favourite substitute teacher was spot on. Weak in the challenge, uninspired going forward and struggling to get to grips with Houllier's six team changes, the champions had their long-serving goalkeeper to thank for leaving the Stade de la Beaujoire with a 1-0 victory in a bag marked 'swag'.

And thank him they did. On the pitch at the final whistle, then in the changing rooms with a standing ovation and rousing chants of "Coupet! Coupet!" A cynic might suggest they wanted to leave him as red-faced as everyone else, but, in truth, anything less would have been downright rude. Often unsung and regularly left yawning between his goalposts in recent years, the former Saint-Etienne shot-stopper gave a 90-minute lesson in how hard it will be to topple Lyon this term.

To make matter worse, the theory goes that he denied not just the home side's courageous forwards, but also the best efforts of trigger-happy officialdom to punish the visitors. Ever since Bordeaux's David Jemmali accused referees of 'protecting OL' a week ago, the spotlight has been turned on the Stade Gerland side and Coupet suspects they have opted for a little over-compensation.

"There's a growing campaign against Lyon at the moment, but we're not protected," he complained, referring in particular to the penalty he conceded for bringing down Mamadou Diallo after just six minutes: "I pushed the ball away with my hand and he crashed into my right shoulder. It was never a penalty." Whether it was or not, the 32-year-old stuck a foot out to block Nicolas Savinaud's tame spot-kick, and a figurative finger up at the men in black.

He was back in action just 13 minutes later, though, and this time it took a stunning reflex save to foil Diallo following an Emerse Faé cross. The Malian forward then had a chance to beat his nemesis just after the hour mark, but Coupet retorted with another fine block. Add some imperious handling into the equation and it was already a world-class performance, yet his best interventions were to come after Fred had headed Lyon into the lead with 10 minutes remaining.

Cursing the fates, Nantes swept forward in search of just reward, only for Romanian striker Claudiu Keserü to be kept out twice, once in stoppage-time, while Mauro Cetto saw his point-blank header swatted out for a corner with almost Matrix-patented reactions. "To be honest, when you're a goalkeeper, you don't have time to think," concluded the evening's hero. It leaves you wondering how existentialist custodian Albert Camus ever coped between the sticks, but one goalkeeper who definitely does have time to think – and could do with a really long one, at that - is Barthez.

The Marseille No 1 returns from his lengthy suspension on October 16 and will be hoping to reclaim his place in the France side from Coupet. His understudy has made a persuasive case in his absence, though, and after a performance like this one must have a serious chance of starting for Les Bleus in Germany next summer - should they qualify. Raymond Domenech will probably give Barthez the nod to begin with, but the 1998 World Cup winner may well find he suddenly has zero margin for error.

As for the rest of Ligue 1, the only ray of light is that Coupet was also unusually busy in August, when he blamed transfer uncertainty for some mediocre Lyon performances. "Individual talent is seeing us through, but that's not how you win a championship. Bring on September!" he exclaimed, and yet here we are, almost in October, and with Houllier's charges still winning ugly. His solution? "We were deficient in a lot of areas today. I think the video of this match will be very useful." No doubt he'll be pressing for repeat viewings.