Among the candidates are Lokomotiv, Spartak and even Krasnodar.

For Zenit, who are unexpectedly out of the top three after five rounds, any finish will be considered a failure, except for their place in the league. Therefore, Semak is in a category of its own, because the worst result was shown before the start of the “gold streak”, when they became fifth. Now Zenit will hardly have such a result if there is no escape from the club of Barrios, Claudinho and Wendel. But the Moscow and Krasnodar teams are at risk. Especially the club that started the worst.

“Locomotive”

Worst record in 10 seasons: eighth place.

Ten seasons ago, the third winner of the previous league Lokomotiv slipped to seventh place. Wealthy clubs often dive into the standings RPL, this is one of the traditions of the championship – instability. Last season they were eighth, and now they are eleventh after five rounds. They only won once, but drew. In the predictions before the start of the season, they set out on the “railway” as a “dark horse” in the fight for the top three. Let’s not pretend their results aren’t astonishing. Coach Galaktionov has a good squad, but the defense plays badly and the veteran Dziuba doesn’t score. If there are no victories over Sochi and Baltika, the quagmire can absorb a promising team with Tiknizyan, Glushenkov and Pinyaev for the second season in a row.

CSKA

Worst record in 10 seasons: sixth place.

The “soldiers” seem to have overcome the crisis period, when they were fumbling around fourth place, falling back to fifth and sixth. But who said coach Fedotov will be able to repeat last season’s success? The mentor has not been given strong newcomers, they are late with transfers. Akinfeev and Diveev are injured. Medina and Zainutdinov left. Thanks to the mentor and active experiments with the composition and positions of the players, it CSKA seems to be the most invulnerable of all in the conversation about a serious table rollback. CSKA are a tenacious team, despite the defeats. But one change is enough for the neighbors in Moscow to stop fearing them and start beating the derby, as Dinamo did, to drop Fedotov to sixth place in the standings. It is clear that for the collapse too CSKA need the success of the middle peasants, “Ural”, “Rostov” or “Wings of the Soviets”. But everything happens inside RPLSochi also remained in second place.

“Dynamo”

Worst record in 10 seasons: fifteenth place.

Now Dynamo is in fourth place with a promising mentor who is trying to find commonalities with the team. They are looking for a football that suits both the coach and the team. But Lichka has little experience of successfully working with the defense. And the lateral Laxalt in the support zone turned out to be hopeless. Zakharyan has left, newcomers are slowly arriving, so he’s right Smolov when he complains about the team. If the management’s task is to fight for the top three, then transfers are needed. And it is important not to forget the bitter experience of leaving RPL in 2016. In the standings there are only four points between Dynamo and Lokomotiv. It’s too early to bet on the final success of the white-blues, even if we note that there are talents and veterans who can still reach the top, as happened recently with coach Schwartz.

“Krasnodar”

Worst record in 10 seasons: tenth place.

Unexpectedly, but we’re talking about one of the most stable clubs of the last decade RPL. Krasnodar has never been a serious fighter for the championship, but almost never got out of the top four. We have dived unusually low only twice in ten seasons. In the last championship we finished sixth and two years ago we finished tenth next to Rostov and below Khimki. It was a blow to the ambitions of the club, which now leads RPL. But Ivic has problems in defense. The team doesn’t have the most impressive bench in the league, but also a direct dependence on Cordoba and Spertsyan. Managers were not sold to other clubs in the summer, refusing transfers. But what will happen to the “citizens” if John and Edward cannot play for natural reasons? We got off to a great start, but Krasnodar hasn’t switched to league mode yet, as evidenced by Ivic’s stupid draw with Lokomotiv.

“Spartak”

Worst record in 10 seasons: tenth place.

The most promising candidate waiting for a drop in rank, unexplained composition and resources. They have twice been sixth in the table in the last ten seasons. They also dropped to fifth place twice. He recently finished seventh. There is usually a rebound, after seventh place they moved up to second. And after the tenth worst, they became third. But Spartak Abascal is not progressing as expected by him. Even the coach is very wrong. Three-hit streak in RPL in a row is not a record for the team in recent years. But the defeat against Zenit showed the youngsters their place here and now. All it takes is one unsuccessful streak to start talking about changing mentors, and that there is always the risk of dipping even lower than sixth place. Spartak has a lot of experience of falling down the table, the Red and Whites have only four successful seasons in ten years.

Even the middle peasants, strong in terms of the sum of recent years, Rostov, Akhmat and Sochi, are at low risk. Each of these teams can finish at least in the fifth row, at least in twelfth position. Especially now, when there is no motivation in the form of trips to European competitions. But it’s not just the broken sports system RPL. Often, and Rubin was a prime example, a well-prepared provincial club can challenge the guys from the capital and Galitsky’s team. In the top five in recent seasons there have been Rostov, Sochi, Rubin and Akhmat. Kazan after success managed to fly away and return to RPL. And now Ural is higher in the table than Zenit, although in the spring they can go to relegation. The Yekaterinburg team will roll back, but Gancharenko’s victories will end CSKA and Spartak is a bad sign for the favourites. Even Semak’s champions are now afraid, but they are not afraid, as before. There is no need to talk about Muscovites. Of the four in the capital, only the “soldiers” did not dive into places eight to fifteen.