8 things you need to know about Round 33 in Russian Premier League

Synthetic grass, bad weather, chubby Arshavin, CSKA’s schoolboy goalkeeper and lack of tea in the stands – Sports.ru blogger Nikita Koroteev brings you the most eye-catching episodes of the first match day after the restart of the Russian Premier League.

1. Synthetic grass

Three RPL clubs began the matchday with home games at the wrong stadium: Volga and Terek played at their reserve stadiums, while CSKA picked the Luzhniki stadium ahead of the cosy Khimki arena. With the addition of Amkar, who has a synthetic pitch all year round, it means that half the games were played on artificial turf. Spartak and Rubin could have been enjoying the green natural grass of the Moscow club’s home ground in Tarasovka, but the home and away legs were swapped around for the Kazan club’s convenience, so instead they played on this nightmare of a surface. It is generally thought that the pitch won’t be ready till April, so why restart the tournament now?

2. Arshavin

Andrey Arshavin, the Arsenal outcast on loan at Zenit made his «debut» for the Saint-Petersburg club, appearing on the left flank of the champions’ attack. He trotted around the park for a good 50 minutes before being replaced with Danko Lazovic, whose appearance soon led to Zenit’s second goal. The current Russian champions have grown a lot in Arshavin’s absence, and the only people to have missed this seem to be their scouts. Waiting six months for the euro will be a tricky task even for the club legend that Arshavin is here. Spalletti doesn’t need an out-of-form player, stuck in the middle between Arsenal first-team and reserves.

3. Revyakin

An injury pandemic among the Red Army goalkeepers led to the appearance of CSKA’s 16-year-old prodigy Sergey Revyakin. The tall schoolboy let in a goal from Kerzhakov within the first thirty seconds, and conceded again in the second half. Overall, though, the young goalie left a very good impression, making a few excellent saves to deny Zenit. When Chepchugov returns to action next week, Revyak will return to studying chemical equations and geographical terms during school. His time will come later.

4. Guilherme

The Lokomotiv No. 1 Guilherme took the long route to establish himself in the RPL, going from being a «who-the-hell-is-this-clown-in-goal?» type of player to becoming one of the best goalies in the league and attracting interest from Chelsea and the like. He is also now the top penalty saver in the RPL, after making another save from the spot kick in the game against Kuban. The penalty save was a turning point after which Lokomotiv soon doubled their lead and sealed the victory.

5. Lambarsky

Krasnodar’s hard-fought victory over Rostov brought about an intense post-match debate: the fans were keen to confirm the nationality of Krasnodar’s youngster Igor Lambarsky, who was originally registered as a citizen of Moldova. The problem threatened to spill over the edge (with possible consequence of a three-point deduction, as was with Zenit, after they failed to register the required number of young Russian players for a match), but was soon resolved by Krasnodar’s best source of news: club president Sergey Galitsky’s Twitter account. He later told TV reporters that Lambarsky also holds a Russian passport and the TV crew’s original version of the match list was not up-to-date.

6. Hiddink

The mastermind behind Russia’s success in 2008 and the man behind the national team’s downfall in 2009, Hiddink always remained a fan favourite in the country, and on Monday he’s earned his first three points as manager of Anzhi. The Makhachkala outfit visibly struggled against the well-organised and attacking Dynamo, who had more possession and shots on goal, but an inkling of a chance was enough for Anzhi to take the lead: da Silva pounced on a rebound and slotted the ball past Berezovsky. Bringing Dynamo down to only their second home defeat of the season allowed Anzhi to climb up the table and tighten the gap between themselves and Rubin Kazan.

7. Headers

Desperate times call for desperate measures: the awful weather conditions and poor playing surfaces force teams to use crosses and long-balls more. In the seven league games this weekend four out of twelve goals were headers (33% – Bendz, Golyshev, Sharonov, Emenike) – compare it to the average rate through the season of about 20%. Moreover, the amount of goals scored from set-pieces or high ball’s in Day 33 of the RPL has gone over the 50% mark. The spring cannot get here soon enough.

8. Tea-time

There was at least some consolation for the bad weather: Russian league president Sergey Pryadkin personally promised the fans to provide them with free cups of tea during this week’s games. The noble idea, however, failed miserably: there was no tea at all in the Luzhniki, nor in Grozny. Pryadkin promised to sort things out, so we’ll follow the events closely. Stay tuned.