8 things you need to know about Round 35 of the Russian Premier League

1. Alexander Samedov

On Saturday the Dynamo Moscow winger ended an impressive run of starting each of the 34 rounds of games in the RPL. He was benched for the first time in the match against Zenit – to make room for talented youngster Kokorin, according to the coach Sergey Silkin. Kokorin failed to impress and the Blue-Whites threw on the Russian winger, who immediately made things brighter in attack for Dynamo. But it was too little too late: by then the home side was already 3-0 down and ended up conceding five – the most they let in on the home ground since 1992. They also lost the third spot to Lokomotiv Moscow.

2. Kyrill Dementiev

Russian journalist and football commentator Kyrill Dementiev has become the centre of attention in Russian football through his curious, if not to say extravagant, dress sense. Some took the Mickey out of the odd-looking dandy, others tried to find doppelgangers. The flashy, stylish look has not gone unnoticed by footballers and coaches. Last year Luciano Spalletti had a little chuckle at Dementiev’s yellow shoes, while this time it was striker Kerzhakov who remarked: «Check out the hat!» in front of the cameras, after netting his 20th goal of the season.

3. Terek

With a little «help» from their underdog friends – Amkar and Tom – Terek Grozny have become RPL’s most successful club since the restart. Stanislav Cherchesov’s men bagged nine points in three matches – the only team to do so this «trimester». The attacking duo – Igor Lebendo and Shamil Asildarov – were outstanding against Rostov, earning 4 goals and 3 assists during these matches and proving once again that they are at least worthy of a place in Russia B-team.

4. Lokomotiv’s defence

It was Jose Couceiro’s Loko boys, who took the third spot away from Dynamo. Their defending was once again faultless, despite the absence of the up-and-coming defensive star Maxim Belyaev, who may well Ignashevich’s eventual replacement in the national team. Against Anzhi they kept another clean sheet – third in as many games, which makes them the only RPL team to concede no goals since the restart. Former Spurs ace Roman Pavlyuchenko is yet to get on the score sheet, but with a defence like that, there is nothing stopping them from climbing up to second in the league.

5. Bananas

It’s all gone bananas in the Russian top flight again: just as the previous «banana-thrower» has been identified, and duly forgiven by Roberto Carlos, a recurrence of the incident left former Blackburn defender Christopher Samba furious. His response, though understandable, may not have been the most sensible: having lobbed the fruit back in the stands, he unsurprisingly missed the perpetrator and hit a random fan with it. A war of words between Lokomotiv and Anzhi ensued, with little constructive effort on both sides, though Lokomotiv have allegedly discovered the footage of the incident from one of the CCTV cameras in the arena. Watch this space.

6. Pavel Yakovlev

This Spartak Moscow reject seems to have flourished in Krylia: he doesn’t score many goals, but when he does, they are often just spectacular. This little beauty, scored in the match against Spartak Nalchik, can easily get into the Top 10 goals of the week in Europe. The strike also helped Krylia Sovetov put a foothold on the 13th league spot, just above Volga, who failed to collect any points this week. «I just tried to make sure the ball doesn’t fall off my foot,» Yakovlev admitted after the game. So the lad is modest as well.

7. Seydou Doumbia

As many have pointed out, this season is somewhat elongated compared to the traditional 30 matches, so technically speaking Doumbia’s record 26th goal of the season is not really a record. Oleg Veretennikov trumped up 25 in the season of 1995, but let’s not be petty: the Ivoirian’s record will be counted at the end of the season and will remain in the books. And don’t expect him to stop any time soon either.

8. Welliton’s injury

A lot was said before the Moscow derby about Akinfeev’s injury in the match against Spartak last season. Naturally, Red-Blue fans wanted revenge on the Brazilian striker Welliton, whose collision with Akinfeev resulted in the Russia Number 1 missing six months with a knee injury. The players refused to be drawn in to the discussions prior to the game, but tempers were running high in the Moscow clash and an injury was on the cards. It is not to say that Berezutsky’s challenge was dirty – it was strong, vicious, but clean – but as the Spartak striker fell, he hurt his collarbone and now faces a long-term lay-off. Some may say it was a coincidence, others – that Karma is a bitch. Either way, Welliton will have to watch from the sidelines as Akinfeev makes his comeback over the next couple of weeks.