Wednesday’s hosts, Dinamo Moscow, will return to their VTB Arena for this important clash against the early frontrunners of the Russian Premier League looking to avoid back-to-back defeats.
A disappointing 2-0 defeat away from home at Arsenal Tula ended a promising three-match unbeaten start to the new domestic top flight season which included wins against Ural and Rostov (both by 2-0 margins), along with a point in a 0-0 draw at home with Rotor Volgograd.
However, despite returning to the more familiar surroundings of their VTB Arena, Dinamo Moscow will need to be fully focused here against an in-form and consistent outfit such as Zenit, especially as results at home last season left a lot to be desired.
The bigger picture shows that Dinamo Moscow have registered just four wins from their last 15 matches at home in the Premier League, while also losing their last three meetings on the trot against Wednesday’s opponents, Zenit, as well.
Last season’s Russian Premier League title-winners, Zenit, continued where they left off last term by winning their first four matches of this new campaign on the trot which has sent them to the familiar territory of top of the Premier League.
Zenit secured another domestic title at the end of last season by a commanding 15-point margin over runners-up, Lokomotiv Moscow, and the early signs this season suggest that they will once again be the team to beat in this Russian top flight campaign, having collected wins against Rotor Volgograd, Rostov, CSKA Moscow and Tambov.
The visitors are indeed enjoying a ‘purple-patch’ of form right now as they’ve put together a solid and impressive sequence of 23 matches without defeat in the Premier League, winning no fewer than 19 of these 23 along the way.
Along with keeping nine clean sheets within this stretch of games, Zenit have also scored 2 goals or more in 17 of these 23 matches as well which doesn’t bode well for Dinamo Moscow here on Wednesday.
Results away from home have also been strong for Zenit as the visitors are unbeaten in their last 11 matches on their travels, winning 10 of these, with forwards Azmoun and Dzyuba (17 goals apiece last season) finishing joint-top of the goalscoring charts last term.
Zenit therefore look set for further success here.