On Sept. 22, 2024, English soccer giants Manchester City and Arsenal faced off in what many labeled an “early title indicator,” with pundits suggesting that one of these two teams would finish atop the Premier League come the end of the season.
The game itself started normally enough. City took the lead in nine minutes, courtesy of star striker Erling Haaland earning his 100th goal for the club. Five minutes later, City nearly doubled their advantage, with İlkay Gündoğan’s curling effort rattling the post.
However, the match — and Manchester City’s season — took a major turn in the 21st minute, as star Spanish international and Ballon d’Or winner Rodri was stretchered off with a season-ending injury.
A mere 60 seconds later, Riccardo Calafiori equalized for Arsenal, and Gabriel Magalhães gave them the lead before halftime. Arsenal, who had been reduced to ten men after a red card, held on for 45 more minutes, but were left stunned by a 98th-minute John Stones equalizer.
At the end of the tied game, the honors were even, but the rivalry was certainly unfinished. Haaland threw a ball at Magalhães, as well as telling Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to “stay humble.”
Five games into the season, it seemed as though the pundits were correct. Having played their toughest game of the season, Manchester City sat alone atop the Premier League, poised to reclaim their throne for a fifth consecutive year.
However, four months later, it is Liverpool who sits atop the Premier League table with a significant lead from second-placed Arsenal. While Liverpool will likely win the league, Arsenal has remained in the race, seven points behind Liverpool. This begs the question: Where exactly is Manchester City?
Today, Manchester City sits in fifth place, nine points behind Arsenal and an astounding 16 points behind league-leaders Liverpool. There isn’t a concrete answer as to why City has collapsed the way they have. There are a multitude of different factors, though most namely the absence of Rodri.
Rodri is, without a doubt, the centerpiece of Pep Guardiola’s modern Manchester City side. When he pairs Rodri in the midfield with Belgian star Kevin de Bruyne, Manchester City boasts arguably the best midfield in the world, capable of controlling the pace of the game.
However, in Rodri’s absence, Manchester City has not been able to operate and control games in the manner they did in the 2023/2024 season.
The epitome of the modern “six,” also known as a defensive midfielder, Rodri brought stability and consistency to Manchester City. Simply put, he elevated the players around him. Prior to his injury, Rodri started 59 consecutive games for Manchester City, completing the most passes among all Premier League players during the 2023-24 season.
At the same time, Rodri anchors the defense, often playing like an additional center-back. During the dying minutes of matches, Rodri frequently operated out of a reserved role, connecting an otherwise separated attack and defense. His ability to break up opposition counter-attacks and distribute well under pressure meant that City hardly ever dropped points if they had the lead.
A player such as Rodri cannot be replaced. In January 2025, Manchester City acquired Nico González from Porto for £50 million in an effort to fill the gap. Many saw the move as a panic buy, and while I don’t necessarily agree — González is an excellent player — it has proved incredibly difficult to fill the void Rodri has left.
However, the loss of Rodri isn’t Manchester City’s only issue. Other injuries to star goalkeeper Ederson have not helped, as well as the departures of key players such as Julián Alvarez, Kyle Walker and João Cancelo. Additionally, a lack of results can be attributed to star player Phil Foden’s downturn in production.
Perhaps Manchester City’s season can be summed up in one match: their second meeting with Arsenal on Feb. 2. Both teams slumped into the Emirates Stadium, Manchester City languishing around 7th place, and Arsenal’s best hope of a trophy gone after a bleak 2-0 defeat to Newcastle.
The teams were hardly akin to the giants they had been labeled as earlier in the season. However, on the night, Arsenal actually played like one. Two minutes in, Martin Ødegaard opened the scoring for Arsenal. Though Haaland brought City level just after halftime, goals from Thomas Partey, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and a screamer from Ethan Nwaneri constituted a humbling defeat for the defending champions.
After his goal, Lewis-Skelly was televised mocking Haaland’s traditional celebration and Magalhães was seen screaming in his face after a successive Arsenal goal. It simply wasn’t City’s night, which leads me to my other, less statistical point.
In short, it is hard to win and even harder to win consistently. But Manchester City had done just that. Since the 2017-18 season, Manchester City has won seven of eight Premier League titles, including four in a row from 2020-21 to 2023-24.
Now we see that just isn’t sustainable. In 2023-2024, City managed to edge out Arsenal from the title by two points. Liverpool suffered arguably worse fates in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons, when they finished with 97 and 92 points respectively, losing the title by only one point on both occasions.
Essentially, City was bound to slip up eventually. Unfortunate things happen — such as Rodri’s injury — but on a basic level, complete and utter dominance at the peak of world football is unrealistic. Manchester City will soon be at the top once again, but as of now, they must take a backseat and watch the title race unfold.
Otto Fritton PZ ’27 is an avid Arsenal fan who dearly misses Arsène Wenger. He likes to think that if he speaks good enough French, he can turn into Wenger himself. Spoiler, he can’t.
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