by It’s now well documented that Manchester City midfielder Rodri hasn’t played in a losing game for his team – be it club or country – in over 12 months. As of February 5, 2023, Spanish has not been improved.
During that time he has won the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup, and may be able to match the treble from last season again. Spain will not face the European Championships this summer as a final but with Rodri in their side there is always a chance, it seems.
It’s almost laughable, then, that no current Premier League player or manager has scored or coached in a match that Rodri has missed since that fateful day in north London. It was Tottenham during their terrible run under Antonio Conte, sacked by Harry Kane, who put Rodri through the pain of defeat. Neither of them are present in the league anymore.
At the time it looked like Spurs were going to help Arsenal to their first title in almost 20 years. In reality, they were just pushing the bear. City won 13 of their next 14 league games to wrap up the title as well as claim the Champions League for the first time, another domestic trophy, and Rodri was instrumental in that.
Missing three games this season is probably the only reason there is another title race. Arsenal and Liverpool pushed Pep Guardiola’s team to the top again, and they may still go top, but it is undeniable that Rodri has not lost City in the three games that Rodri has played.
If that figure were even less, the already tiny gap between first and third would be erased. In the next 29 games (28 of which he started) they won 21 and drew seven.
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It should come as no surprise that he tops the league in points per game metric with 2.5. He has the team’s third-highest goal tally while playing – notably behind Declan Rice and William Saliba. He is a man-engine who is driving towards a fourth consecutive league title.
City are not the side they were last year, however, and Arsenal are much better – underlined by their improved results over the reigning champions. At times Rodri felt that the player was holding things together and Guardiola sends his team towards relaxation in a variety of increasingly complex ways.
Since December, he has also been walking barefoot. He picked up five yellow cards in his first 12 games, missing two games due to a red card in September against Nottingham Forest – City, as mentioned, lost both including the away game against Arsenal. Before the start of the year he had seven bookings in 18 games while staring down the barrel of a further two game suspension.
There is still a threshold of five yellows until the end of match 18 – at which point Rodri had already served a one-match ban in the 1-0 win against Aston Villa. Things then transition to ten yellows for most of the rest of the season. Having dropped maximum points from the three games he lost, it looked like a huge obstacle for City to overcome when they were almost inevitably going to face him.
Rodri was apparently destined to sit out two more games between January and May. The record speaks for him and without him. There was a very real chance that his availability could go almost all the way to ruling City in or out of the title race.
Now, with seven games remaining, there is no such concern. Rodri has picked up eight yellow cards but we are just one game away from the 32 match day cut-off point for the booking threshold of ten. After avoiding a sanction in the 4-2 win over Crystal Palace, it meant that he is no longer likely to be suspended.
It means he has gone 13 games with one card, ending any chance of him missing the final. With little chance of injury either, the 27-year-old is not a flight risk when it comes to fitness. He hasn’t missed a game with injury since 2019 and had no record of niggles or setbacks during his time at Atletico Madrid.
However, he cast doubt on his selection against Luton at the weekend after admitting he was tired after Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid. “I need rest,” he said after playing a quarter-final in ten days. “I do.
“Let’s see how we speak, how we live the story. Sometimes it’s what it is. I need to adjust. [Rest] it’s something we’re planning, yes. All of us can do better, even me. But we need to relax to be honest.”
Even in a state of fatigue, Rodri is adding to his side. As well as an assist against Palace last weekend he managed a goal and an assist when Villa visited the Etihad Stadium three days earlier. Since losing to Unai Emery’s side on December 6, the midfielder has now scored four goals and four goals in 16 league games.
The next point for a ban is 15 yellows though, as that is the only way to award him off the pitch, meaning he can get one per game and still be ok for the rest of the campaign. With City trying to sweep everything in front of them in the last six weeks, and Arsenal trying to get to grips with their rivals, Rodri’s presence will certainly be felt one way or the other.
Ultimately, even if Rodri were to play every game between now and the end of the season with City winning every game, it might not be enough. The title is in Arsenal’s hands at this stage – goal difference depends – but the Rodri factor adds a level of certainty to how hard City will push in the final two months.
