Blues make Rod for their own back as winning run comes to end

A WEEK ago Pep Guardiola played down the absence of Rodri from his City team for three games by insisting the Blues would still play with 11 men, even without the lynchpin of their midfield. It's not the quantity that would have concerned the Blues boss, but the quality.

- TYRONE MARSHALL

No City player played more minutes than Rodri in the Treble-winning season and they haven't had to do without him for three or more successive games since October and November 2019. They have one game of his three-match ban to survive nearly four years on and the omens aren't good.

It's played two, lost two without Rodri and the chaotic, controlfree nature of their defeat to Wolves at Molineux would have Guardiola burying his head in his hands in the front row of the Billy Wright Stand as he served a touchline ban after three bookings this season.

After Rodri's red card against Nottingham Forest, Guardiola joked that he could afford to get on the wrong side of referees, but his players couldn't. He was angry with the holding midfielder then. He will be apoplectic with him now.

When Kyle Walker was needlessly sent-off in a dead-rubber group game against RB Leipzig last season, he spent weeks on the naughty step. Guardiola would probably like to give Rodri the same treatment, but this horror show only served up a reminder of how indispensable he is.

On an afternoon when City could have won their first seven top-flight games for the first time in their history, they allowed Arsenal to get within a point of them ahead of next weekend's Emirates showdown. On this evidence, the Gunners will fancy their chances against a Rodri-less Blues.

It was Mateo Kovacic tasked with replacing the 27-year-old, but Matheus Nunes who attracted all the early attention and Kalvin Phillips who fired their final chance over the bar deep into added time.