Manchester City suffered a shock 2-0 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday
Simon Peach, Press Association Chief Football Writer
13:28, 18 Jan 2026
Manchester City midfielder Rodri
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Manchester City midfielder Rodri(Image: )
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.
City, in truth, were fortunate to both avoid defeat by a greater margin at Old Trafford and then see Arsenal held 0-0 at Nottingham Forest in Saturday’s late kick-off.
Experienced midfielder Rodri said: “Football is like this. You lose, you learn from the past and you move on.
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“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.
Guardiola’s men had also been in midweek action having won the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final 2-0 at Newcastle, which Rodri indicated had impacted energy levels against United.
“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.
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“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.”
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