We have looked ahead to the upcoming matchday 27 fixtures in the Russian Premier Liga to bring the key plot lines to watch out for.

Krasnodar vs Rostov: Heated pride at stake for revamped southern rivals

To say this has been an unusual campaign for both southern clubs would be an understatement. Krasnodar began with a sparkling squad brimming with experience and overseas quality, bolstered by big-money signing Jhon Cordoba and two-time Russian Cup winner Grzegorz Krychowiak, before manager Viktor Goncharenko parted ways with the club to be replaced by German manager Daniel Farke. 

The departure of many stars didn’t help their consistency either, but the new identity of the side has given a different outlook for the run-in. A string of debutants have come into the matchday group with little expectation of matching their predecessors but have offered a chance for the club’s fantastic academy products to prove themselves even more. A top-four challenge is realistically gone with the gap now seven points with five fixtures left for them - but a clash against rival city Rostov is the real litmus test for their progress.

Rostov themselves have seen a fair amount of turnover on and off the pitch, which perhaps explains a little behind their extraordinary guarantee of entertainment for spectators. It is just the phenomenal number of goals they have scored and conceded (88, more than any other side), but also the dramatic scalps they have claimed along the way. A last-minute winner last week against Spartak, home and away wins over Lokomotiv Moscow, and the 2-2 draw away to Zenit St. Petersburg all set pulses racing.

With Valery Karpin back in the hot seat, fortunes on the pitch have improved dramatically to not just whisk them out of relegation trouble, but launch them into the top half of the table. In fact, they could even close the gap to their rivals Krasnodar to just two points after this weekend, which would represent a stunning turnaround after being in the relegation playoff zone when Karpin returned. His Manager of the Month award for April was hardly a surprise; now he needs to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

Zenit St. Petersburg vs Lokomotiv Moscow: One (or both) hands on the trophy?

Sergey Semak may come into this match knowing that he could clinch an unprecedented fourth consecutive Russian Premier Liga title with a win if Dynamo Moscow are beaten at home by Ural Ekaterinburg. They are already on the longest run of league championship wins in the Premier Liga era (since 2002) with three in a row, and are within a whisker of extending their record. Even if Dynamo avoid defeat, as they might expect to against struggling Ural, beating Lokomotiv would allow Zenit to have a second chance to seal the title in front of their own fans when they host Khimki next weekend.

Anything other than winning the title has become an automatic failure for Zenit, such are the standards Semak has established. With a surprise exit from the Russian Cup following Alania’s dramatic penalty shootout win in the quarter-finals, there is even more focus on the only competition left for the league leaders. If recent matches between them are anything to go by, however, they needn’t be concerned with one end of the pitch; the last home game against Lokomotiv saw them let rip with a 6-1 annihilation.

Trying to contain such a lethal forward line will be almost impossible. Lokomotiv have not fared well on the road in that respect, keeping no clean sheets since September and letting in at least two goals in all of the last four. They’ve only beaten two top-half sides away from home in the two years - CSKA Moscow and Rubin Kazan - while more worryingly have just a single league win in St. Petersburg in the last 18 years.

RPL Player of the Month Wilson Isidor remains the most potent outlet for the Railroaders, despite eventually breaking his phenomenal scoring record last weekend after seven in his first six. He will need every ounce of that sparkling form if Lokomotiv are to put a spanner in Zenit’s title charge.

Spartak Moscow vs Krylia Sovetov Samara: Spartak priority juggling

It is fair to say the league campaign for Paolo Vanoli and his men is a complete write-off at this point. They are mathematically already out of reach of the top four, and remain rooted in the bottom half of the table. With a Russian Cup semi-final against second-tier Enisey Krasnoyarsk looming after matchday 28, they could be forgiven for simply switching priorities entirely to securing at least some silverware instead of worrying about league results.

The concerning thing is that, incredibly, they are not technically clear of relegation trouble. Just three points separate them from the playoff drop zone, and after this match they have two away games - to the easternmost RPL location in Ekaterinburg, and to red-hot Khimki - either side of hosting leaders Zenit St. Petersburg. If they take their foot off the pedal this weekend, the unthinkable prospect will loom menacingly closer to reality. 

Krylia could smell an opportunity to take advantage of the concerns and split focus at Spartak. Underneath the veneer of their 4-1 collapse away to Khimki last weekend was a performance that had dominated almost the entire first half to put them in front, before the first of two red cards precipitated their slide. On top of that, Spartak loanee Maksim Glushenkov has hit a run of form at just the right time to face his parent club, with two goals in the last two games.

However off colour Spartak may be, they remain a fearsome challenge for Krylia to overcome. The Samara outfit have lost all three other visits to the capital this season - or all four if we include Moscow Region, and last week’s collapse at Khimki. Finishing with nine men of course mitigates the manner of the defeat, which turned out to be their worst in almost three years; hit the ground running this weekend, though, and they have a major scalp waiting to be taken.

Akhmat Grozny vs CSKA Moscow: All guns blazing for Armymen’s hunting ground

Just when Akhmat were reeling from their worst run of form all season following just two points from their last seven RPL fixtures, they face their bete noire CSKA. It isn’t just that they struggle badly to avoid defeat against the Armymen - the last eight league encounters have all been lost - but in that painful run of defeats, they haven’t scored a single goal, and have managed just one in the last 13 meetings.

The monkey on their back will only keep growing unless they can crack the hoodoo. Their home form this season has come in waves, with not a single draw; one defeat, two wins, two defeats, five wins, now three defeats. Only Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov have lost more home games, although in fairness they have also scored as many home goals as their visitors this weekend. 

CSKA travel down to Grozny on the back of two Moscow derbies of contrasting natures, losing to Spartak at home in the Russian Cup but beating second-placed Dynamo in the RPL, so it is hard to measure their more recent form in one sense. It was their first clean sheet in the last six league matches, and first win in four, but the sparkle from their stunning winning streak in the early spring is not shining quite as brightly.

For most players, three games without a goal wouldn’t constitute a crisis, but then most players don’t plunder eight goals in their first six games in a completely new country and footballing landscape. Yusuf Yazici has now failed to hit the back of the net in his last three games in all competitions, and took a slight knock last weekend.