Samuel Eto’o could make his debut for Anzhi Makhachkala at Rostov on Saturday in the Russian Premier League, while leaders CSKA play Spartak in a Moscow derby on Sunday, a day after the army club celebrates its centenary.
Eto’o signed from Inter Milan this week in the biggest coup in Russian football history, and is eager to show he is worth his reported 20 million euro-per-year contract.
"I hope that they give me 10 or 15 minutes against Rostov," the four-time African player of the year told the Sovietsky Sport newspaper after arriving in Russia on Thursday.
Having won three of their last four games, Anzhi are on a surge in the league, in fourth on 36 points, nine short of leaders CSKA. Rostov, one point off the bottom in fourteenth, have lost all of their last five home games.
At the top of the table, CSKA have a derby match against a Spartak side looking to rebound from a humiliating home defeat in Thursday’s Europa League playoff to Legia Warsaw.CSKA, who beat Tomsk 3-0 last week to end a three-match winless streak, know they cannot afford a slip as chasing pair Zenit St. Petersburg and Dinamo Moscow have home matches against bottom-half teams Krasnodar and Spartak Nalchik, respectively.
Zenit are two points behind CSKA on 43 while Dinamo have 38 in third.
CSKA can draw extra motivation if it is required for the Moscow derby from turning 100 years old on Saturday. Founded on August 27, 1911, as the central sports club of the army, CSKA retained those initials and are nicknamed the Army Men, but no longer affiliated with the Defense Ministry.
In other matches Saturday, Tomsk host Amkar Perm and Volga Nizhny Novgorod plays Terek Grozny. On Sunday, Rubin, joint-fifth with Spartak Moscow, host bottom team Krylya Sovietov, Lokomotiv travel to Kuban in a battle of eighth-versus-seventh.
The Russian Premier League is in transition as it switches from a summer to a winter season to coincide with the rest of Europe. The current 2011-2012 season stretches over 18 months and is played in two stages.
The first, which is currently two-thirds through, is a regular schedule in which each team plays each other team twice. After a winter break, the top eight and the bottom eight separate to form two mini-leagues in which each team plays the other twice. Teams in the top league will fight for the championship and places in European competitions, while teams in the bottom league try to avoid relegation.
