Rodri promises Manchester City will ‘fight until the end’ in title race

Rodri promised Manchester City will “fight until the end” after Saturday’s derby defeat saw them slip seven points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola’s men have stumbled out the blocks in 2026, with draws against Sunderland, Chelsea and Brighton compounded by a 2-0 loss at Manchester United.

Experienced midfielder Rodri said: “Football is like this. You lose, you learn from the past and you move on.

“The young lads are doing brilliant. Of course they miss the experience some times, but we need to help them because they are going to be important in the next years.

“This is the way that you build teams. Sometimes you need to wait a little bit to create something bigger. It’s our reality.

“We dropped many points in the last games but still we are second or third. We are going to fight until the end.”

Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and John Stones were among City’s absentees against United, as were Mateo Kovacic, Savinho, Oscar Bobb and Nico Gonzalez.

“I mean a difficult day but of course we tried,” the Spain international told City Studios.

“We tried but sometimes the opponent is better. We have to accept that they had more energy, they had more legs.

“They were more the side to win today than us, even though we didn’t lose the face but at the end I think they catch us in counter-attacks with two goals.”