It's back to being a two horse race.
Zenit and CSKA have restored the gap at the tpo of the table with similar wins in the latest round of games. While Zenit saw off Volga 3-0 in St. Petersburg with goals from Viktor Faizulin, Alexander Bukharov and Danko Lazovic; CSKA were no less destructive in a 4-0 hammering of visiting Spartak Nalchik with Seydou Doumbia notching another hat-trick after Vagner Love's opener.
With the victories, the pair moved six and four points respectively, clear of third placed Dinamo Moscow. With daylight now developing, the notion that the top two are too good for the rest of the division rears its familiar head again and the split into tiered divisions, just like in Scotland and Belgium, cannot come soon enough.
Zenit have notched 17 wins and nine draws in 28 games and have lost just thee times. CSKA are just a bit worse with 16 wins and 10 draws in their 29 outings. And with very similar differences, (Zenit's +34 to the latter's +29), the pair are the class of the league.
Behind them the remaining Moscow trio of Dinamo, Lokomotiv and Spartak are competent but not consistent, plucky but not accomplished, and remain tied in a knot that sees third separated by just two points. While Spartak joins the top in having won back to back games, going back to round 28 last weekend, the fact remains that CSKA and Zenit are running a different race.
While CSKA scored a thrilling and crazy 5-3 win at Anzhi, the newly minted moneybags club of the league, last weekend, Zenit were somewhat more serene in a 3-1 win at Rostov. Rubin Kazan, one of the top clubs and far better than their current league placing of sixth also won that round in an impressive 2-0 win at Dinamo. But like the lesser Moscow triumvirate, Kazan lack the consistency that separates the contenders from the pretenders, the excellent from the merely good.
Kuban Krasnodar continues to impress, holding onto seventh in an impressive campaign while Anzhi have quietly made their way into the top eight after their latest win, their first in five games, 2-1 over Amkar Perm. Yuri Zhirkov and Samuel Eto'o both scored. Uniquely, Russia is one of the most up and coming leagues outside the big five in Europe and with five clubs in Europe, indeed, three in the Champions' League, will soon be an outright powerhouse in European affairs.
Doumbia, with successive hat tricks and eight goals in three games now leads the scoring charts with 22 goals. Alexander Kerzhakov, of Zenit, is second with 16 strikes.
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