Manchester City

Katie Stafford
BBC Sport journalist

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Newcastle United (kick-off 12:30 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• He confirmed midfielder Rodri had surgery on Friday morning after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury and is ruled out for the remainder of the season.

• On the long-term blow: "This season is over [for him]. Unfortunately, we got the worst news but these things happen. We will be there to support him in his recovery, step by step."

• Fellow midfielder Kevin de Bruyne remains sidelined, with Guardiola unable to specify whether he will return before or after the next international break.

• He said there is no like-for-like replacement within the City squad for Rodri but added: "As a club we have magnificent players and we will find a solution."

• More from Guardiola on replacing the Spain international: "We will have to do it as a team and find a way to play a lot of matches without an important player for us. We don’t want it but it is football."

• On the overall impact on the title challenge: "I am always confident. If we win, then great. If we don't, it is because of Rodri."

• On Saturday's trip to St James' Park: "We are going to the battle ready."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Can you name the two players who have scored more Premier League goals for Manchester City than Erling Haaland?

Answer will be revealed at 17:00 BST

Image source, Getty Images

There has been a lot of conversation this week about "dark arts" in football following the draw between Manchester City and Arsenal on Sunday.

Realistically, everyone who has watched football for longer than one game has seen things they would perceive as "dark arts"; whether it is a player always going down winning free-kicks to take the sting out of the game, kicking the ball into row Z when there was no multi-ball system or time-wasting on goal-kicks.

These are things we see all the time but our perception of it is dependent on the context of a game. You always see some version of it somewhere, and you hope your team would be doing the same thing if in the same situation - because why should you do something that would benefit the opposition you are against?

It is the same as going down a bit more easily to win penalties - some people will say "this guy is a cheat", but then on the other side of their mouth, if it is something that could benefit them, they say "he has tried too hard to stay up, he needed to go down there".

You can have rulings, Ifab can get involved to change this and that, but there will always be a way to push the rules to their limits.

What we saw with Arsenal in that game, where David Raya sat down to get some treatment while the teams gathered, we have seen those moments before. It is not just new to Arsenal - other teams do it.

It is always based on certain moments. You do get more frustrated if it happens against you, but when you need to do it, you encourage people to do it. That is one of the beauties of football - the way you see things is always going to be down to perception, context and just whether you think it is benefiting you or not.

Nedum Onuoha was speaking to BBC Sport's Phil Cartwright

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester City have scored in each of their past 31 Premier League games against Newcastle, the longest scoring streak one team has against another in the competition’s history.

On the latest episode of You'll Never Beat Kyle Walker, Kyle and former Manchester City midfielder Michael Brown discuss the biggest matchday wind-up merchants.

A special guest joins the lads to talk about football's trash talkers and Kyle reveals the moment that put a stop to his trash talking for good.

You can listen to the full episode here on BBC Sounds

Image source, Getty Images

The draw has been made for the Carabao Cup fourth round, with 12 Premier League clubs having made it through and Newcastle set to play their postponed tie against Wimbledon on 1 October.

There are four confirmed all-Premier League fixtures, including Tottenham hosting Manchester City and holders Liverpool travelling to Brighton.

Ties are scheduled to take place the week commencing 28 October.

All the fixtures featuring top-flight sides are shown below:

• Brentford v Sheffield Wednesday

• Southampton v Stoke

• Tottenham v Manchester City

• AFC Wimbledon/Newcastle v Chelsea

• Manchester United v Leicester

• Brighton v Liverpool

• Preston North End v Arsenal

• Aston Villa v Crystal Palace

See the full draw

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

Image source, Getty Images

Arsenal held Manchester City away from home in remarkably difficult circumstances with a defensive performance that was as close to perfect as possible given the context of the game.

Close, but no cigar.

If you are leading with the clock passing 95 minutes and you do not manage to see it out, it is only natural to feel deflated.

When the dust settles, they will know that it was an incredible performance that shows they have resilience, heart, nastiness and indeed every trick in the book up their combined sleeves. They will need all of that for the rest of the season if they are going to stay with the champions.

For the neutral, it was as intense a football game as you are likely to see. It underlines once and for all that these two teams are worthy adversaries that will join some of the great titanic Premier League rivalries of the past. I cannot wait for the next meeting already.

Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta might both feel relieved but spare a thought for referee Michael Oliver. He made a few mistakes, particularly with Arsenal’s first goal, but there will be very few tougher games to manage.

Both sets of fans will be fuming with him but I am happy I was not the one trying to control that one. It was close to impossible and maybe he was the most relieved person in the entire ground when he blew the final whistle.

Sign up to read more from Nevin in his Football Extra newsletter here

The Football News Show is joined by Norwegian football expert Jonas Giaever to discuss whether Erling Haaland will be playing in England long enough to break Alan Shearer's Premier League scoring record.

Watch The Football News Show in full here

Image source, Getty Images

We asked for your thoughts after Wednesday's Carabao Cup game between Manchester City and Watford.

Here are some of your comments:

Jay: So glad we won after Sundays game. Good to get back to winning ways so quickly.

Nick: Great to see the youngsters on the pitch. You can already see they buy into Guardiola's playing philosophy. They tire and have concentration lapses later in the game but from their early match performance you can tell we have some more major talent for the future.

Tim: It was good of Guardiola to blood a few academy players along with several fringe squad players into last night's Carabao Cup squad. Braithwaite was confident and assuring. The game was only 51 hours after the game against Arsenal and the team had plenty of possession to have the game sewn up by half-time. Jack Grealish played exceptionally which is good to see.

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

There are a fair few 'Manchester City with and without Rodri' stat comparisons going around which make it seem that City might be out of the title race. After all, if the side take just 1.9 points from their remaining 33 games, they would finish on 76 points.

However, while losing Rodri is obviously a big blow, the reality is not nearly so bleak once you consider that that comparison counts games where Rodri came on late as a substitute as 'a game with Rodri' - even if he played just a single minute of it.

If you look at Man City's record in Premier League games in which he has started or not started, the situation is not nearly as apocalyptic.

If Guardiola's side take 2.2 points from their remaining 33 games, they would finish with 85 points

Still not great and would leave the door open for Arsenal and Liverpool to claim the title, but not disastrous.

The reason why counting or not counting his substitute appearances as games 'with Rodri' matters so much is because City have won 10 of 12 of them, drawing the other two.

Rodri is obviously a key player for City given that nine of the 12 appearances from the bench were in his first two seasons at the club, but it is unlikely that the team's performances will drop off quite so dramatically as the simple 'with and without Rodri' comparisons suggest.

As the debate around the football calendar and player welfare continues, one of the footballers most vocal on the issue is now set to be out for several months.

Rodri picked up the knee injury against Arsenal in an ill-tempered match between the title rivals on Sunday and has since been in Spain to get his condition assessed.

While this injury came from an innocuous collision, the midfielder recently suggested players were "close" to going on strike in protest at the increase in games following changes to European competitions and the Club World Cup.

Spain international Rodri featured 63 times for club and country last season, on the way to winning the Premier League and European Championship within the space of two months.

According to a recent Fifpro report on player workload, Rodri was included in 72 matchday squads for club and country, including pre-season friendlies, between July 2023 and July 2024 - totalling 6,107 minutes on the pitch.

The graph above shows how the workload was spread across the 12 months for the Ballon d'Or nominee, with just the two rest periods.

Compared to Premier League players across all competitions last season, according to Opta, Rodri's 50 games was four fewer than those who played most.

He was joint second for games started, one behind Andre Onana, and eighth for the number of minutes played.

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, speaking to BBC Radio Manchester about Matheus Nunes following the midfielder's goal in the Carabao Cup win over Watford:

"He played a good game, I'm happy for him. He's a nice guy, he deserves the best.

"His pace is unbelievable. Sometimes you have to adapt a little bit what you have to do, I'm really pleased for him."

On dealing with the absence of injured Rodri: "We have to do it as a team. Rodri is arguably the best midfield player in the world, he's irreplaceable. Is he a big loss? Absolutely.

"To replace him, we have to do it differently. We have to do it as a team. It's important to support him and have a safe recovery for his future."

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter

Image source, PA Media

Sometimes it is difficult to follow Pep Guardiola's press conferences.

His answers can be long and detailed, and often go off at tangents, almost as if he is thinking of something else before he has finished with dealing with the matter in hand.

You can have to read through his words, or listen to them, again to see what he actually means or to check in case you have missed something.

It was a bit like that on Tuesday night.

We already knew Rodri was going to be out for quite a while. It is clear he is an influential figure in Manchester City's side.

The really important bit now is what will Guardiola do about it.

He began his answer by talking about opponents not rolling out the red carpet and wearing their best dresses, he finished it by saying he could not play the way Mikel Arteta did at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

But in the middle was the key point.

"Rodri not [being] here [is] a problem," he said. "But complain?

"This is the challenge.

"It is a problem. A big one. But a pity? Absolutely not.

"We go to Newcastle, try to win and do what we have done for many years. It is as simple as that."

Following Rodri's injury, Manchester City are looking to sign a defensive midfielder and have put together a four-man shortlist including Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi, Nicolo Barella of Inter Milan, Atalanta's Ederson and Crystal Palace's England youngster Adam Wharton. (Teamtalk), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Man City’s performance, external

Come back to this page on Wednesday to find a selection of your replies

Manchester City's Rodri limped off in the first-half during the 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

BBC Radio Manchester’s Mike Minay discusses the potential impact that a long-term injury to the Spaniard could have on City's campaign.

Listen to the latest episode of The Football News Show