Dynamo Moscow 5-1 Arsenal Tula
Sunday 21 November, VTB Arena

Goals: Dynamo - Szymanski 15’, Balbuena 22’, Grulev 25’, 27’, Zakharyan 60’; Arsenal - Khlusevich 86’
Man of the Match: Sebastian Szymanski (Dynamo)

Arsenal simply couldn’t touch Dynamo all evening, falling 4-0 down inside half an hour and never really looking like changing the path of the game. Sebastian Szymanski was in inspired form, opening the scoring with a cleverly placed finish from Konstantin Tyukavin’s layoff after 15 minutes. There was very little a slightly wrong-footed Anton Konchenkov could do to keep out his precise low shot.

Then came a three-goal blitz that completely took the game away from the visitors. An outswinging corner from Szymanski was met by a powerful Fabian Balbuena header, three minutes before before the Polish playmaker sparked a flowing move that set Sergey Parshivlyuk clear down the right flank. Vyacheslav Grulev thumped a header in off the right-hand post to make it 3-0.

The fourth was a strike of pure brute determination laced with magnificent close control and precision from Grulev. Still a long way from goal, he held off three challenges as he bobbed and wove his way towards goal with Arsenal defenders bouncing off him, before lashing an unstoppable rocket past Konchenkov.

Arsen Zakharyan came on at half time, and his dipping goal to make it 5-0 was a sign of how confident Dynamo were. With the defenders backpedalling, the teenager had time to pick his spot, and curl a shot over Konchenkov, who was only a yard or two off his line anyway.

Spartak-bound Danil Khlusevich slid in a consolation with a few minutes remaining, but it couldn’t cover up how dominant Dynamo had been.

Dynamo go second on 29 points, while Arsenal remain 14th on 13 points.

Next RPL fixtures: Sunday 28 November - Rubin vs Dynamo; Monday 29 November - Arsenal vs Lokomotiv