The queue of observers waiting to write off OGC Nice's Ligue 1 title chances is long, but the club are not ready give up on anything just yet.

Trailing to Montpellier for the best part of an hour on Saturday, that host of doubters would have been more substantial—at least until forward Mickael Le Bihan, returning from 17 months of absence with a double leg fracture, used 30 minutes of action as a substitute to score twice and turn the match around amid joyous scenes.

It was a fairytale, by any standards, and exactly what it meant in the dressing room was clear in the short film below from the club's official website; not just to Le Bihan, who we can see wiping his eyes, but to the collective, with a number of players tightly embracing him.

One of the most notable features of this happy scene for some will be the absence of Mario Balotelli. The Italian striker was serving a ban after collecting a second red card in the space of six games, which is a large part of the reason that Le Bihan was sent on to save the day. He replaced Anastasios Donis, the 20-year-old who was initially given the task of filling Balotelli's boots but who endured a frustrating day.

To keep Nice in the race—and they have done extraordinarily well to stay within touching distance of free-scoring leaders Monaco, who they trail by three points, and the mighty Paris Saint-Germain, who lead Nice by virtue of better goal difference—will take commitment and courage. The strong implication in recent weeks has been that Balotelli is lacking a bit of a both at present, in a perceived return to his bad old ways.

It's not even a sense within the media, but something that has come directly from that dressing room. Midfielder Valentin Eysseric questioned Balotelli's work ethic on not one, but two occasions recently, as reported here by ESPN FC's Ian Holyman.

"We see him in training every day, we know he's a great player," Eysseric said after a recent game at Rennes. "He could have helped us in games like this where we know he can make the difference. The coach asks for a lot of effort from his squad and doesn't accept any slackening off."

The numbers do indeed suggest that has been the case with Balotelli. Overall, they look good, with nine goals scored in 12 Ligue 1 starts. Only one of those has come in his last six matches (five starts), though, along with two red cards.

This downturn will be a source of great frustration to Lucien Favre, the coach who—as Eysseric says—fosters a real culture of industry in the ranks. Plenty of that has focused on Balotelli, too. Though Favre was by no means the driver of Nice signing the former Liverpool striker, he has made bringing him closer to his best a personal mission.

When Balotelli was setting Ligue 1 alight in his opening weeks in France, Favre looked like a genius for his handling of him. There was a specific plan to recondition a player that arrived without a pre-season under his belt; sometimes with double sessions, and others with a day (or even a match) off.

Straight after Balotelli's dazzling debut, when he scored twice in a thrilling 3-2 win over Marseille in September, Favre tried to temper expectations.

"It was his first full match in four months," Favre noted, as per MaxiFoot (in French). "It's inevitable that we'll have to start him then take him off later, or give him breaks."  

A player that Jurgen Klopp couldn't have more comprehensively washed his hands of responded well. Just before Christmas, Balotelli spoke about the work that Favre had done with him, as well his attention to detail in improving his game.

"I think that Favre is one of the best coaches I've ever had," he said, as reported by So Foot (in French). "He works a lot on tactics, to improve my movements and my runs."

The real question has to be—what's changed in the interim? Much of the criticism of Balotelli, from inside and outside the club, seems to be centred around the same old themes. He doesn't press enough, and he doesn't run enough (Lille defender Julian Palmieri even suggested, quite disgracefully, that Balotelli used the racist abuse he received at Bastia as "an excuse" for a below-par performance, as per Eurosport, in French).

These aspects of his game always made him a bad fit for Liverpool, of course, especially when they were attempting to replace Luis Suarez, but he seemed to have found his place at Nice. Midfield runners like Wylan Cyprien and Jean Michael Seri did the hard yards, and he would be the deadly finisher at the end of their work.   

Yet now, it's as if he's being punished for being himself. Whatever things people can (and do) chide Balotelli for, pretence is not one of them. He has always been himself, and he has never hidden what or who he is.

It is perhaps simply human nature to seek a scapegoat; and when the goals dry up for Balotelli, he doesn't often look like he's busting a blood vessel to make it right.

Favre has stepped back from hanging him out to dry, and even after his red card for dissent at Lorient, the manager praised him for making himself "more implicated" in training, per L'Equipe (in French).

The fact is, with top scorer Alassane Plea out injured for the season and the transfer window shut, Nice need Balotelli—and they will have the Italian back from his ban this weekend, when they travel to Dijon.

In turn, he needs them, of course. Even at 26, it's hard to see where he can go from here—in Europe, at least—if it doesn't work out at Nice. No wonder his agent, and habitual chief cheerleader, Mino Raiola this week suggested to RMC he was ready to take his client's tongue and "cut it out" to keep him out of trouble (h/t The Mirror's Alex Richards).

Perception becomes reality, and Balotelli can't even be seen to sulk for the rest of the season, let alone do it. If he could rediscover somewhere near his best, then glory that was unthinkable 12 months ago could be tantalisingly close.

Nice can't be treated as a soft option, or a holiday. The win over Montpellier meant they would reach the mark of a year since they were last beaten at the Allianz Riviera. For some, it seemed like the club were stretching themselves too far by leaving the pokey, hostile Stade du Ray to come to a bigger, modern facility. Now, it is unquestionably a fortress.

That stage needs stars, and Balotelli is one of those. It's not long ago that a mural of him was painted on to a wall in the city's Moulins neighbourhood—replacing an old one that featured Hatem Ben Arfa, in fact (picture from RMC Sport).

Let's hope, for the sakes of both player and club, that Super Mario's image remains there for a while yet.