The next clash in the Russian Premier League features the encounter between last season’s top two clubs when Lokomotiv Moscow play host to title-winners, Zenit, at the RZD Arena with the hosts looking to rekindle their earlier form.
This season’s Premier League campaign started so smoothly for last season’s runners-up, Lokomotiv Moscow, as they captured early back-to-back wins in the Russian top flight with victories over Rubin Kazan 2-0 away and a 1-0 home win against Krasnodar, but recent times have brought about a sudden halt in proceedings.
A 1-1 draw away from home at Ural has been succeeded by back-to-back defeats against Spartak Moscow and Akhmat Grozny, the latter a particularly disappointing 3-2 loss at home, so The Railwaymen will be eager to set the record straight this Saturday.
However, they’ll be facing the strongest team in the domestic top flight this weekend and although Lokomotiv Moscow have beaten Zenit in two of their previous three matches at home, the hosts will be coming off two defeats on the trot which doesn’t help.
Onto Zenit, and the visitors will also be heading into this important clash on the back of defeat as they were handed a 1-0 loss at local city rivals, Dinamo Moscow, last time out in the Premier League which ended a string of victories for last season’s title-winners.
Indeed, Zenit had previously possessed an impressive 100% record to start this season’s campaign off in style and they had seemingly picked up where they left off at the end of last term as they finished with back-to-back wins against Orenburg and Rostov.
This season, Zenit have already picked up wins over Rotor Volgograd, Rostov, CSKA Moscow and Tambov, and they too will be desperate to return to winning ways and prove that their defeat last time out was only a minor bump in the road.
Recent overall results have seen Zenit win 12 of their last 14 matches in the domestic top flight, while away from home they’ve been equally as impressive by winning 10 of their previous 12 league matches on their travels.
Within this period, Zenit have scored 2 goals or more in 9 of these last 12 away matches and with the likes of forwards Asmoun and Dzyaba up front, the visitors stand a decent chance of outscoring their hosts here and take all three points.