We have picked out the most intriguing points to look out for on matchday five. 

RPL’s youngest squad travels to one of the oldest

CSKA Moscow had a huge amount of success in the previous decade, building the core of their team around an experienced spine of the likes of Aleksey and Vassily Berezutsky, Igor Akinfeev, Sergey Ignashevich, Pontus Wernbloom, Bibras Natkho and Kirill Nababkin amongst others. Then two years ago there was a shake-up of the squad as a raft of younger players were promoted from the youth system or brought in from abroad and other RPL teams. 

Now they have the lowest average age of Russian Premier Liga first-team squads at just 24.1 years. By comparison, 11 of the 16 RPL sides have a squad age of between 26 and 27.3. For this upcoming matchday, however, that number drops to just 19.8 years if one discounts players unavailable through injury (Kirill Nababkin, Alan Dzagoev and Ilzat Akhmetov). 

FC Krasnodar have developed one of the most impressive academies in Russia - arguably in Europe -  but their first-team squad is one of the oldest. In fact, only two first-team squads in the Russian Premier Liga have a higher average age than Krasnodar’s (27.3), which contains 10 players aged 30 or older. By comparison, CSKA only have seven players over the age of 22, although 26-year-old Cedric Gogoua and 23-year-old Ilya Pomazun are both out on loan at Rotor Volgograd and Ural Ekaterinburg respectively.

Having said that, Krasnodar have seven members of their academy currently in the senior squad, all of whom have seen minutes for the first team. On top of that, five academy graduates - Ivan Ignatyev, Artem Golubev, Nikolay Komlichenko, German Onugkha and Ilya Zhigulev - are also playing in the Russian top flight for other teams this season.

Both sides have now won and lost twice so far this season, seeing them fall six points behind reigning champions Zenit St. Petersburg already after four matchdays, although Krasnodar have the joint-tightest defensive record so far with just two goals conceded. They don’t have the best head-to-head record against CSKA though, having won just twice in their last nine meetings.

RPL’s youngest members go head to head

FC Tambov host FC Sochi on matchday 5 with almost as many differences as similarities, but one commonality between them is their age as clubs. The pair were promoted to the RPL together last summer as the top two finishers in the FNL, and as the youngest two two top-flight clubs they have a combined nine years of existence between them. 

Tambov’s path to the top flight has not all been plain sailing. After formation just seven years ago, they finished bottom of their third-tier PFL division and only avoided relegation from the professional leagues by virtue of a rival dropping out for financial reasons. Once in the FNL, they twice suffered playoff heartbreak before eventually guaranteeing promotion to the RPL last summer. Even now, they have been unable to play in their home city while their stadium is undergoing redevelopment, playing ‘home’ games in Saransk and Nizhny Novgorod.

On the other hand, Sochi have taken up residence in the magnificent Fisht Olympic Stadium since their inception. They have been around for just two years after they assumed the place of Dinamo St. Petersburg in the league system two years ago, but while Tambov are still finding their feet and have just one win so far this season, Sochi are unbeaten with only Zenit St. Petersburg on more points. Having said that, it was Tambov who ran out 3-0 winners last time they met just over a month ago.

Spartak stir nostalgic Rotor memories of more successful times

Rotor Volgograd have not set the RPL alight on their long-awaited return to the top flight. No team has scored fewer or conceded more goals than them as they prop up the standings after four matchdays. Reinforcements have boosted the experience in their squad after 2017/18 RPL champion Solomon Kvirkvelia arrived on loan last week from Lokomotiv Moscow, but their task doesn’t get any easier as they welcome unbeaten Spartak Moscow to the Volgograd Arena.

In the 1990s Rotor were among Spartak’s closest challengers, losing just two of the first eight meetings between the two sides in Russian championships and twice finishing runners up to Oleg Romantsev’s all-conquering side that claimed nine Russian championships in 10 years. Although Spartak have won 12 of the last 16 league games against Rotor, they have served up plenty of entertainment with 41 goals in the last nine RPL fixtures in Volgograd.

These memories came to an end 16 years ago though with Rotor’s relegation, and tell a story of a very different time. The pressure is on Aleksandr Khatskevich - who played for Spartak’s historical rivals Dynamo Kyiv for eight years, scoring against Real Madrid in the Champions League - to start building from the ground up against Domenico Tedesco’s enterprising outfit.

Photo: Andrey Shramko/FC Krasnodar; Sergey Kulakov/FC Sochi; Aleksandr Stupnikov/Spartak Moscow