Winless Tula and Khabarovsk Meet in Russia
The final match in the second round of 2017/18 Russian Premier League games sees SKA-Khabarovsk travel to the Stadion Arsenal to take on Arsenal Tula.
Arsenal Tula finished 14th last season, which saw them contest a promotion/relegation play-off match against Yenisey Krasnoyarsk of the league below. Having lost the away leg 2-1, Arsenal Tula won the second leg 1-0 and this secured their Russian Premier League future for one more season on away goals.
SKA-Khabarovsk were also involved in the promotion/relegation playoff and having drawn both legs of their tie 0-0 with Orenburg were successful on penalties and won promotion to the Russian Premier League.
Both teams this season will be looking to avoid the drop and if they can finish any higher than 13th it will be classed as a successful season.
Trends show Arsenal Tula have won three of their last ten matches in the Russian Premier League. All three of those victories came at home, including a very good 3-0 win over current champions Spartak Moscow towards the end of last season. However, they started the current campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Lokomotiv Moscow.
Arsenal Tula’s recent home record is very good and they have won six of their last eight home league games, drawing one and losing one. Trends show they have kept a clean sheet in each of their last four home Russian Premier League games.
In the last nine of their twelves home league games there have been under 2.5 goals and Arsenal Tula have failed to score in six of the last nine.
SKA-Khabarovsk started life in the Russian Premier League with a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Zenit St Petersburg. This was always going to be a tough opening fixture and they will be hoping for better in Tula.
SKA-Khabarovsk have never played in the Premier League before, this will be their first time in the top-flight in their 71-year history.
Having finished 14th in the previous two seasons, nowhere near promotion, SKA-Khabarovsk finished 4th last season and somewhat surprisingly claimed promotion in the playoffs. At home, they lost just three league games all season but lost five on the road.
Scoring goals away from home towards the end of the season wasn’t a problem but keeping them out was a different story. SKA-Khabarovsk scored 16 goals in their last nine games but conceded 11, keeping only two clean sheets.
Looking at the team news and Arsenal Tula may be without Ilya Maksimov who is still recovering from injury. Spanish defender Victor Alvarez has joined the club from Espanyol but is unlikely to feature in this game.
SKA-Khabarovsk have a fully fit squad to choose from and will adopt a defensive 5-4-1 formation. Juan Lescano will lead the attack and hope for support from Maksim Kazankov and Ruslan Koryan.
Arsenal Tula will see this as the perfect opportunity to pick up maximum points against a newly promoted team. While they don’t score many goals at home, their defence should be good enough to keep out SKA-Khabarovsk. Expect a low scoring match with the home team edging it by a single goal.
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