For the first time in several years, an exciting fight for gold is planned in the RPL

One of the pleasant features of the current Russian football championship has been the unusually high, by its standards, degree of competition in the tournament at the starting stage. After nine rounds, the championship table looks very tight, and most importantly, for the first time in several years, the favorite destined to reach gold is not visible.

The ninth round of the Russian Championship ended on Monday. And after it, it’s hard not to pay attention to one feature of the championship that distinguishes it from most that have taken place in recent years.

What makes any tournament attractive is the level of competition in it. In the Russian championship he was often quite decent, but now it seems he has reached new heights. In any case, if we take the period that covers six seasons, including the current one, in other words, the period during which the championship was dominated by Zenit, which had not given gold to anyone since 2019.

This observation applies less to the basement of the standings. In the “relegation zone”, on its two lowest lines are “Sochi” and “Fakel”, with 11 points between them. In the past five years, there have been situations when, after nine rounds, outsiders collected a little richer loot (see reference). But in any case, compared to the season that preceded the current one – the first entirely played by Russian football in conditions of international isolation – positive changes are striking. A year ago, by the tenth round, the obvious candidate for relegation was known. Torpedo, which had recently returned to the Russian Premier League (RPL), had only one point in its asset, and it was clear that everything was heading to the fact that next spring the club, whose composition and play did not meet the standards of the top division, would proceed in the opposite direction. In September 2023, such candidates are not visible even under a magnifying glass. Even “Fakel”, located in 16th position, is quite a biter and showed stubborn resistance not only to teams with modest potential, but also, for example, “Krasnodar”, “Zenith” and “Rostov”. And among his neighbors there are not those who are going to drown with pleasure, but for now they are holding on more or less decently thanks to happy accidents.

But the top part of the table is even more revealing. At its top is Krasnodar, and Lokomotiv, which is sixth, is six points behind it, a distance of two victories or one single recession lasting a couple of weeks, experienced by the leader. In 2020, the formal density of the six was even higher (then it fit into five points), but nuances are important, such as stating the undoubted fact that the list of undisputed medal hunters in the championship is by no means exhausted by the six. Let’s say it’s definitely stupid to exclude from it the winner of the silver medal in the previous championship, CSKA. He is two points behind Lokomotiv, and what is happening with the army team, despite their losses, during the winless streak that stretched over five meetings, does not correspond at all to the idea of ​​an absolutely full-fledged crisis, whatever one may say. It’s more likely not a crisis, but problems with fine-tuning due to some personnel transformations, and coach Vladimir Fedotov is quite well versed in them.

Even more important, apparently, is the position of Zenit. Each of the five championship seasons he followed approximately the same scenario, not sparkling with complex twists: he accelerated briskly, took the lead, slowly increased his advantage and, finally, happily celebrated the gold he won ahead of schedule, turning three or four finishing rounds into a championship parade. Now things are a little different.

Zenit, which lost to Lokomotiv in the last round, has 17 points. During the period of hegemony, they never had less than 20 St. Petersburg players after nine rounds (see reference). And third place, “pure”, without dividing points, in such a segment for Zenit is, in fact, an extraordinary phenomenon. He was always already a leader, or at least shared leadership with someone, preparing to soon escape from his opponent. In this championship, he will have to try hard to escape. At the same time, there is a feeling that Zenit’s reserve of strength after Malcolm’s departure to Saudi Arabia is indeed no longer such as to see in it a club that is doomed to retain the title, and at the beginning of the season is simply playing cat and mouse with its opponents.

Another thing is that the undisputed favorite in the matches held in August and September cannot be seen in any other team. “Spartak” traditionally “sausages”: it has already managed to be in first and ninth place in the table. “Dynamo” has improved, but still suffers more often than plays bright and fresh football. Lokomotiv, like CSKA, lacks stability; Krylia Sovetov, which suddenly soared to second place, lacks resources.

So far, only Krasnodar, which has not yet suffered defeats, has managed without obvious failures, while Zenit already has two. But even here not everything is clear. The Krasnodar bench does not look deep enough to guarantee the club a smooth marathon, and the temptation to attribute the team’s success partly to the calendar is very strong. At least Krasnodar has not yet crossed paths with Zenit, CSKA, or Krylia, which suddenly acquired a trendy look. Intersections with them – three in a row – will occur in just over a month, at the junction of October and November. Perhaps after them there will be a reason to carry out a serious upgrade to the currently insanely intriguing alignment.

Alexey Dospehov, Evgeny Fedyakov