Rodri apologised to his teammates for the wild moment that led to his sending-off in Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City maintained their perfect start to the season with a 2-0 win over Forest at the Etihad, with an early double from Phil Fo den and Erling Haaland proving enough to earn another three points. However, the second half was a nervy affair after Rodri was sent off.
Usually so cool and composed, the stalwart midfielder figuratively and literally saw red just after the break after a bust-up with Morgan Gibbs-White. The two players squared up but Rodri took it a step too far by raising his hands to Gibbs-White’s throat, handing him the chance to go to grow and illicit the dismissal.
While it didn’t prove costly on the day, the red could come back to haunt City who will now be without Rodri for three matches, including the upcoming clash with title rivals Arsenal. The Spaniard felt bad and apologised for his actions in the dressing room, Kyle Walker has revealed.
“When you’re playing every three or four days, tiredness runs into emotion and that’s something we need to learn from,” Walker said. “The next four or five moments we’ve got games every three or four days.
“We can’t make the emotion of the game take control over us; we need to keep our heads. Rodri said his bit in the dressing room and apologised to the lads. We’ll learn from it and it’s a lesson for everyone that when you’re on the field you’ve got a level of responsibility. We move on. These things you have to learn from.
“Rodri’s a fantastic player. It shows the level of faith the manager has in him when he plays him all the time.
“The players that come on and the players we’ve bought are fantastic so there’s no excuses and we move on with the players we’ve got and hopefully keep getting the same level of results. We’ve got a lot of top players in that position – we move forward and keep going.”
