Rodri doubles down on famous Arsenal dig with off-pitch Manchester City secret | OneFootball

Manchester City midfielder Rodri has made a bold claim about the club’s silverware successes and the possibility that their triumphs were secured before a ball had been kicked.

Rodri is not the most famous personalities in north London, having taken public shots at a perceived absence of killer’s mentality in Mikel Arteta’s squad when giving his two cents on why Manchester City have pipped the Gunners to the Premier League title in recent seasons.

City were given a run for their money by Arsenal in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons but Pep Guardiola’s side peresevered and saw off the north Londoners to claim their third and fourth successive league titles.

Having missed majority of Manchester City’s commitments on the pitch in the last 12 months, Rodri started for the fourth game on the bounce on Sunday as City failed to retain a one-goal lead against Arsenal and saw Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-time goal secure a point for Arsenal.

The Ballon d’Or holder has been indispensable for Manchester City since 2021 and after making a slow start to life in England following his transfer from Atletico Madrid in 2019, the Spain international has established himself as arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world.

City have heavily leaned on the four-time Premier League winner over the years and Rodri’s importance to his side was underpinned by the catastrophic drop witnessed at the Etihad Stadium over the course of the 2024-25 campaign, with Rodri spending nine months on the sidelines after tearing his ACL against Arsenal in September 2024.

Speaking in an interview prior to City’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium at the weekend, Rodri gave a peak through the curtain into his struggles with injury over the last 12 months and the consequent troubles faced by his side on the pitch.

“I’m not close (to full fitness) but wanted to come back, see my teammates again. I wasn’t part of the team last year, but I was always in the team, and suffered like them,” Rodri said.

“I looked at them and they were suffering and when you suffer on the pitch it’s difficult because you run, you’re a bit lost and you want to win then things don’t go well, and you feel pressure.

“It’s not an easy job in this sense but we’re a team and that’s the best thing, when we win, when we lose. Last year, they did a massive effort at the end of last season to qualify for the Champions League, and it was like winning a title.

“I’m pretty sure that effort will benefit us in future and we’re hoping this year will go a different way.”

Rodri also spoke of the mental strength within the Manchester City side in previous seasons, and a strength that he believes was the ultimate advantage over trophy rivals.

“It was our best weapon all these years; our mental strength. When things go really tough, we step forward. This is the champions’ mentality. We had this all these years. For me it’s the key, the difference,” said Rodri.

“At the end, the team is the level, the average team has top players, all around the league, teams are even better. So that was the difference in all these years; always able to win, suffer, every three days always able to be ready to win again, and again.

“For me, we have to recover this spirit, this mentality. Of course, the level will come, but most important is here (the head). We were able to win leagues, leagues, and leagues because of this, not because of the level.”

Arsenal fans will no doubt be triggered by the brutal honesty reflected in Rodri’s comments and it is exactly figures like Rodri that are needed desperately in the midst of the ongoing first-team squad transition at the Etihad Stadium.