CSKA Moscow aim to stay in contention for the Russian Premier League title with victory over city rivals Lokomotiv on Saturday.
The army side are six points off the lead and know a win would pile the pressure on top side Zenit St. Petersburg, who face Rubin Kazan a day later.
Something may have to give at Luznhiki: Second-placed CSKA haven't won at home since beating Spartak Nalchik 4-0 in October.
Lokomotiv, in third, are winless away since a 2-1 defeat of the same team in the same week, and come off a shock 4-0 cup defeat to Rubin midweek.
"CSKA are definitely the favorites, but I don't think that Lokomotiv will cave in," said former Russia midfielder Alexander Mostovoi. "The Rubin loss will hardly affect Lokomotiv's fate, ... and CSKA will find it tough."
CSKA are sweating on the fitness of Japanese playmaker Keisuke Honda, whose thigh injury forced him out of the Champions League defeat at Real Madrid earlier this month and last week's 2-1 defeat of Spartak Moscow.
Jose Couciero's side, meanwhile, welcome back Brazilian winger Maicon and midfielder Dmitry Tarasov from injury and look to continue a run of three games without conceding.
Elsewhere, Zenit look to defend their season-long unbeaten home record against a Rubin side still glowing from their Russian Cup thrashing of Lokomotiv but stuttering in the league.
Kurban Berdyev's men have drawn two and lost the last of their previous three, the latter a 1-0 defeat at Dan Petrescu's Kuban.
Zenit come off a 5-1 league thumping of Dynamo Moscow that saw the police side surrender third to Lokomotiv, but Berdyev may be encouraged by the fact that the leaders have conceded five times in their last four games - and were knocked out of the Russian Cup by Dynamo midweek.
Question marks remain over the fitness of Viktor Fayzulin and Bruno Alves for the hosts, while striker Alexander Bukharov may start against his former side.
In other games, Dynamo could retake third place with a win at home over Spartak Moscow on Sunday, and Anzhi Makhachkala wrap up the championship group games looking to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat at Lokomotiv last week when they host Kuban.
In the relegation group, bottom side FC Tom Tomsk fight to extend their longest unbeaten run this season to three matches when they host Krylya Sovetov Samara, top team FC Krasnodar take on Amkar Perm, and Spartak Nalchik travel to Rostov.
Terek Grozny look for their fourth win in four when third-from-bottom Volga Nizhny Novgorod arrive in Chechnya on Monday.
