More recently, it seemed that the championship race in the RPL began with renewed vigor, and CSKA would impose competition on Zenit and Dynamo to the last.
The army team confidently resumed the season and gave out a six-match winning streak in the national championship.
In the standings, they managed to reduce the gap from the white-blues to one point and to six from Zenit.
However, an unexpected fiasco awaited Alexei Berezutsky's wards in the next segment.
In meetings with outsiders Ural (2:2), Khimki (2:4) and Ufa (1:1), they scored only two points and again seriously lagged behind their competitors.
In the remaining five games, it will be difficult for them to catch up even with Dynamo.
It remains to concentrate on the fight for bronze with Sochi, Krasnodar and Lokomotiv.
Thus, the battle for gold is continued by two teams.
Muscovites, as after the end of last year's part of the season, are only one victory away from St. Petersburg.
But to win back such a seemingly insignificant handicap is not easy, and the defending champions in this race look like clear favorites.
Firstly, the team of Sergei Semak will be higher if the points are equal.
The main indicator is personal meetings, and in them the title holder secured the most important advantage.
At home, Zenit defeated the opponent - 4: 1, and on the road achieved a draw - 1: 1, which may well become fatal.
The schedule of the remaining matches for contenders for gold medals is approximately equal in complexity.
Dynamo are waiting for three meetings with the teams fighting for medals (CSKA, Lokomotiv, Sochi), Zenit - two (Krasnodar and Lokomotiv).
But in addition, blue-white-blue will have to face off against Spartak in the derby of the two capitals.
The teams also have two games with middle peasants and outsiders: Zenit has Khimki and Nizhny Novgorod, Dynamo has Ural and Krylya Sovetov.
At the same time, the next two rounds will be key for the Petersburgers, in which they will meet with Krasnodar (away) and Lokomotiv (at home).
And in the 29th they will play on the road with Spartak.
Dynamo, on the contrary, is waiting for the hardest finish, which includes fights with Lokomotiv and Sochi.
But the wards of Sandro Schwartz in the framework of the national championship will practically not have to leave the capital, with the exception of a trip to Samara.
The Semak team will have to fly to Krasnodar, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.
An additional advantage for one of the teams could be a departure from the Russian Cup and freed up time to prepare for the decisive matches of the RPL, but both continue to perform.
However, taking into account the fact that their opponents in the quarterfinals are the teams of the FNL, Baltika and Alania, and they have to play on the road, the coaches may well save their leaders.
And here the more impressive Zenith bench comes to the fore.
Although the Petersburgers were left without Yaroslav Rakytsky, who terminated the contract with the club, and lost the injured Stanislav Krytsyuk, Daniil Odoevsky, Deyan Lovren and Vyacheslav Karavaev, they can boast of having a good reserve.
For example, Semak, in a victorious match with Ural, allowed himself to leave Vendel and Artyom Dziuba in reserve, and this did not affect the result.
The universal Andrey Mostovoy, as well as experienced Alexander Erokhin, Magomed Ozdoev, Daler Kuzyaev and Alexei Sutormin are always ready to strengthen the game.
There are newcomers Nuraly Alip and Arsen Adamov in the defensive line, and Ivan Sergeev in the attack.
Dynamo also managed to keep almost all the legionnaires with the exception of Ivan Ordets, but Schwartz does not have such a selection of performers.
So, due to the injury of the main central defender Fabian Balbuena, the German in the meeting with Nizhny Novgorod was forced to throw the young pupil Sabu Sazonov into battle.
There is no adequate replacement for the trio of central midfielders Nicolo Moro - Daniil Fomin - Sebastian Szymanski.
The coach does not have the opportunity to rotate in this area or give his leaders a rest.
The same applies to the very young Arsen Zakharyan, who in the current season of the RPL only once remained in the reserve - in the match with the outsider Arsenal, and missed another due to disqualification.
Well still managed to dilute the young line of attack experienced Fedor Smolov.
This transfer has fully justified itself.
The striker of the Russian national team won the competition against Konstantin Tyukavin and has already scored five goals for the team in all tournaments, including two winning ones.
In general, the blue and white after the resumption of the season began to act much more pragmatically.
They don't show such bright football as in autumn, but they are steadily gaining points.
If earlier they could misfire in meetings with rivals inferior in class (Akhmat - 1:2, Nizhny Novgorod - 1:2, Krylya Sovetov - 0:1), now they don’t allow themselves this.
And most importantly, the blue and white show character at the right time.
Only thanks to a controversial penalty did they manage to beat Krasnodar.
In the next round, an own goal by Kirill Gotsuk in the 87th minute brought victory over Nizhny Novgorod.
And Smolov helped to snatch a draw in the home confrontation with Rostov.
Moreover, after the resumption of the national championship, Dynamo scored six times after the 80th minute.
But Zenit still has more championship experience, and in the previous three golden seasons, he invariably played a powerful ending.
For comparison, last year the Petersburgers scored 11 points out of 15 possible in the last five rounds and secured the title by defeating their main competitor - Lokomotiv - in the 28th round - 6:1.
They scored the same number of goals to Rotor, five more to Tambov.
In 2020, Semak's wards made only one misfire in the same segment, breaking away with Akhmat (1: 1) on the road.
And in 2019, they put an end to the 28th round in the confrontation with CSKA (3: 1), after which they allowed themselves to lose on the road to Rostov.
The champion won the key victory in the 24th round over Krasnodar - 3:2.