The League Standings Now and Predictions on Relegations

While it is now finally safe to say who is getting thrown out of the Russian Premier League and who from lower divisions is coming in, accurate predictions can be now made.

Russia’s top teams, Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv, Zenit, CSKA and Rubin Kazan all are in their proper positions in the league and don’t surprise anyone with their standings. Moscow’s Lokomotiv and Spartak couldn’t have done any better this year in the league. This season both of the teams had new coaches and each had their revival this season. So far Spartak is in 4th and Lokomotiv is in 5th. Spartak purchased some new players, such as Ari while Lokomotiv received one of the best strikers league, Aleksandr Aliyev that helped the Railroaders notably through free-kicks. Rubin Kazan is Rubin Kazan this year. The team has really no star players but through coaching does the team achieve second place. Kazan is disciplined in the Premier League but could do way better in international plays such as the Champions League. Last year’s shock against Barcelona (Rubin Kazan winning 1-2 away) was obviously luck but they were outplayed the whole game and this happens almost every game they play outside the domestic league. Zenit is no shocker either. The richest team in the league features a new Italian coach and new star players. Through coaching, skill and experience earns them first place and will take first place this year is my prediction.

Let’s not forget the other teams in the league. Formerly from first division, FC Rostov are in a surprising 7th place predicted by many before to be in the bottom of the league. FC Rostov are surprising everybody, even their own fans. Dynamo Moscow is in a disappointing 8th place. So far they haven’t had a revival even with a good squad featuring Voronin and Kevin Kuranyi.

The two teams that will get relegated would most definitely be FC Sibir’ Novosibirsk (The team that somehow beat PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League) and Anzhi Makhachkala. Anzhi Makhachkala in their future couple of games are facing heavy opposition are expected to lose and finish in second to last place which will get them relegated.

The two teams from Russia’s First Division that will get promoted to the Premier League are Kuban’ Krasnodar, which were in the Premier League a season ago. Now they are coming back with a big gap on points higher on the rankings than anybody else in the First Division. The other team I predict will be Volga Nizhny Novgorod. They only lost 4 games this season but had many draws. They have an excellent home record, as does Kuban’ Krasnodar and might be entering the Premier League next season if everything is predicted right.

Russian Premier League

1 FC Zenit St. Petersburg 57 (Points)
2 FC Rubin Kazan 51
3 PFC CSKA Moskva 49
4 FC Spartak Moskva 40
5 FC Lokomotiv Moskva 39
6 PFC Spartak Nalchik 39
7 FC Rostov 33
8 FC Dinamo Moskva 33
9 FC Terek Grozny 31
10 FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast 28
11 FC Tom Tomsk 27
12 PFC Krylya Sovetov Samara 26
13 FC Anzhi Makhachkala 24
14 FC Alania Vladikavkaz 24
15 FC Amkar Perm 22
16 FC Sibir Novosibirsk 18

FC Volga Attacking

Category: Team News