Football Season Guide

Zenit have finally seen their grip on the league title for the past seven years come to an end after a series of poor showings and drooped points in the closing stages caught up with them and they failed to keep pace with that superb Krasnodar side that took the crown. Zenit were just not focused and determined enough last year to lay claim that they deserve the title more. They are certainly still the best squad in the division but as a whole let their standards drop on too many occasions and got punished. Now the aim for Sergey Semak and his squad is to fight back emphatically and shoe that Zenit are better than anyone else and will romp their way to the trophy. They made a very impressive signing in Flamengo midfielder Gerson, who immediately took a pole position for possibly the best player in the entire league. The other addition has been left-back Ramon Vega but he is not expected to have immediate impact given the strong options in his position. The squad remains filled with some exceptional talent, namely like Luiz Henrique, Luciano Gondou and Wendel, along with a few other excellent options in every department. They are thus overall too good for the rest of the league and the main issue remains how Semak can keep this all-conquering side hungry and motivated to bring their A-game on most weeks. Still, it will take someone rather brave to not back them to power their way to the league title, especially given they now come to it from the role of a chaser.