Arsenal must be internally confident about their chances of winning the Premier League this season now that Manchester City midfielder Rodri has been sidelined with a major injury.
Ian Wright named Rodri as City’s most important player and described his injury as a “massive blow.”
Previously, Manchester City have been able to beat Mikel Arteta’s sides to titles despite missing key players such as Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and John Stones to name a few.
However, in both of their last two title-winning seasons, Rodri has been an ever-present in their side.
The Spaniard’s impact cannot be undermined as he was arguably their best player in both campaigns.
- READ MORE: Who is Rodri? Get to know Man City’s modest midfield maestro who won a Champions League final
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However, the Gunners also have several players who made their team tick.
No club would wish for an opposition player to be injured.
However, it would be advantageous for title rivals if either one of their main man cannot play for one reason or another.
As a result, it is impossible to deny that Rodri’s injury does not hand Arsenal a huge boost for the time being.
Gary Neville quizzed his fellow pundits on The Overlap’s Stick To Football show about which Arsenal player Manchester City would like to be in the stands for a season.
“If you’re City, you’ve [Ian Wright] just said you wouldn’t want [Martin] Odegaard out but he wouldn’t be the first player I would take out of Arsenal’s team if I was saying to City, you could put someone in the stand. I’d pick [Declan] Rice or [William] Saliba personally out of the two.”
“Who would City take out of the Arsenal team?”
Jamie Carragher replied: “Saliba.”
“I don’t think they’ve got much backup at centre-back really.”
“If Rice went out, they’ve got [Thomas] Partey, they’ve got Jorginho. At centre-back, who would you bring in there if one of them is out?”
“Left-footed, aren’t they [Riccardo Calafiori and Jakub Kiwior]. I think Saliba definitely.”
William Saliba missing out of the Arsenal team has benefited Man City before
Perhaps Manchester City would agree with Jamie Carragher as the £27 million (Sky Sports) man was injured during the backend of the 2022/2023 season; a factor which benefited them in their title race against Arsenal.
With Saliba getting better and better as a defender since then, his influence in this Gunners side has grown.
The Frenchman’s rock-solid partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes is the fulcrum behind Arsenal being one of the hardest teams to beat in English football.
However, Mikel Arteta also lacks a world-class defensive midfielder other than Declan Rice or a top-class forward like Bukayo Saka within his ranks.
Knowing the winners Manchester City have at their disposal, they would like to play them at full-strength in a one-off game and would like to compete with them for the title when they are at their best.
Such fierce competitors never seem to shy away from such a challenge.
Perhaps Rodri’s absence will motivate the City players to showcase that they can continue dominating English football even when arguably their best and most important stalwart is nursing a serious injury.
