We have rounded up the key things to look out for on matchday 14 in the Russian Premier Liga.

Champions League jet lag

Zenit St. Petersburg take on fellow UEFA Champions League representative FC Krasnodar, with both sides on a rocky run of form. In the last nine Russian Premier Liga matchdays, the two teams have picked up a combined 27 points from a possible 54; over the course of a full league campaign that would equate to a final total of 45 points. This wouldn’t have been enough to qualify for any European trophy in any season since the turn of the century, except last season when Rostov finished on that total to squeeze into the Europa League qualifiers.

Zenit have been knocked off the top of the Russian Premier Liga table after picking up just four wins from their last nine league games - and the last 12 in all competitions - while Krasnodar have slipped all the way down to 10th following just three wins in their last 10 RPL fixtures, including three defeats in the last four of them. Although they are the top and join-third top goalscoring teams to date, Zenit can at least boast three players on six goals each - Krasnodar only have two players with more than two RPL goals to their names.

Zenit were robbed of all three points at home to Lazio midweek on Champions League matchday three by a later Felipe Caicedo equaliser after Aleksandr Erokhin had given Sergey Semak’s side the lead with his fifth goal in his last seven appearances for the club. Krasnodar, meanwhile, let a 2-0 lead slip against 10-man Sevilla away from home. Both remain on a single point in their groups, but still retain realistic hopes of at least making the Europa League by avoiding finishing bottom.

Murad Musaev’s men are at least the last team other than Rubin Kazan to beat Zenit at home. The bad news? That came over two and a half years ago. Current Krasnodar centre-back Egor Sorokin scored both goals in the first of those two Rubin wins at the Gazprom Arena two years ago, while Igor Smolnikov spent seven years in St. Petersburg. With Wanderson and Viktor Claesson both back in action midweek, they will at least be able to call upon more of the experienced dangermen. 

Third ‘away’ Moscow derby for Lokomotiv

With three of the four major Moscow clubs occupying European places as things stand, and one only two points further back, the 2020/21 season so far has been one of the most promising from a collective point of view for the capital clubs. CSKA, Spartak, Lokomotiv and Dynamo have an average league place of 3.75 this campaign, which has only been bettered three times in the last decade when taking the final league standings into account. Only twice since 2010 have all four finished higher than seventh - occupied currently by Lokomotiv, the lowest ranked major Moscow club as things stand.

Over the past decade CSKA have reigned supreme over their cross-city rivals, with four RPL titles and six times finishing higher in the overall table than other Moscow sides. The other four seasons, they ended second-highest placed in the table. Lokomotiv have claimed an RPL title each in that time, but they and Dynamo have finished lower than their neighbours more often than the Armymen and Spartak.

The way the fixtures have worked out has led to CSKA already having played all three home derbies, whereas this weekend sees the last one on the road for Lokomotiv. The Railroaders have a strong record on the road in Moscow derbies, having won seven of their last 11 cross-town league fixtures. 

Dynamo have one of the worst derby records though, especially at home. In fact, since their relegation from the top flight in 2015, they have failed to win a single home Moscow derby in 11 attempts. Worse than that, they have scored just one goal in their last eight home local derbies. 

Two Moscow trips for Rostov - two RPL leads spoiled?

Last weekend worked out very well for Viktor Gancharenko’s side as they took advantage of Spartak’s 1-0 defeat to Rostov to take the lead in the RPL standings for the first time in over a year. Consistency has been a problem for a while as they have battled European commitments with staging a domestic challenge, but it seems as though they have hit form at the right time with seven wins in their last eight league games. 

There is almost no margin for error in the table at the moment though. One point separates the top three, while four points further back the rest of the top-half chasing pack is split by just two points. The last three matchdays have seen three different leaders as every team except CSKA themselves has lost at least once in their last four fixtures.

Pavel Mamaev scored the winner last weekend against Spartak at the Otkritie Arena, and will be one of the key players for CSKA to watch. The last time he faced his former employers - after growing up in the Torpedo Moscow academy, Mamaev spent six years at CSKA where he won one league title, four Russian Cups and a Russian Super Cup - Mamaev scored in a dramatic  3-2 win earlier this year.

In fact, he wasn’t the only former Armyman to score in that five-goal thriller. Roman Eremenko equalised after CSKA had taken the lead through Arnor Sigurdsson had broken the deadlock, but also later had a penalty saved by Igor Akinfeev. Mamaev gave Rostov a 3-1 lead after the visitors had gone down to nine men, and it proved to be the winner as Maksim Osipenko’s late own goal set up a tense finish. If he repeats the trick this matchday, CSKA could quite likely be left playing catch-up once again.

Spartak’s Ural hoodoo

Ural have had very little to cheer about this season so far. They did scrape through their Russian Cup elite round group with a hat-trick from iconic forward Eric Bicfalvi in the last 10 minutes of their away match against second-tier Veles Moscow to avoid an embarrassing early exit to lower-league opposition. In the league though, they only escaped the relegation playoff zone last matchday with a valuable 2-1 win away to FC Ufa, and have scored just over two goals every three games - the third-lowest scoring rate.

As if to make matters worse, they now have to host Spartak Moscow, who until the last matchday were top of the table. However, there is a curiosity about the fixture that should give them hope. Since the start of 2018, they have picked up more points against Spartak than any other side. In that time, they have lost just once to the Red-Whites, and knocked them out of the 2018/19 Russian Cup quarter-finals.

Spartak have the bit between their teeth after losing the RPL lead with a disappointing home defeat to Rostov last time out, and kept a clean sheet on their last two visits to Ekaterinburg. The pressure is on Ural to get something from the game though, as after this weekend they will only have one more home league game until the spring, with trips to face CSKA and Zenit in December.

Photo: Anna Meyer/ Zenit St. Petersburg; Konstatntin Rybin/RPL