The sale of Rodri has handed Arsenal a dream transfer boost ahead of their Premier League title defence
Rodri leaving Manchester City has handed Arsenal a major boost
Rodri leaving Manchester City has handed Arsenal a major boost(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
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With a fortnight left of the transfer window, Arsenal are very active and hope to make additions to their title-winning squad before the window ends. However, it is elsewhere which has truly handed the Gunners a boost.
After being beaten 3-0 by the champions, Man City boss Enzo Maresca took to the press conference stage and was plied with questions. One such question surrounded the future of Rodri, who was absent from the squad, still having yet to recover from an injury.
"Rodri is a player that just won the World Cup, Ballon d'Or – a top player that all teams would need,” he said. “It's not about if we miss Rodri or not, I think the ones that played today, Elliot [Anderson] was quite good, his first game, and Mateo [Kovacic].
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"But again, I think we can find many things after defeats, we just need to analyse the right way and think about/focus on the next one.”
However, as fans were getting their trains home from Cardiff, the news broke that Barcelona had agreed a £65.4million deal with City to sign Rodri. This will bring to an end a dominant era where the Spaniard has been considered the best midfielder in the division and even the best player in the world at times.
Since Rodri joined City in 2019, he has faced Arsenal 11 times in the Premier League; he has never lost. City won eight and drew three of the meetings.
Rodri missed two league matches against Arsenal, one due to an injury to his ACL, actually suffered against the Gunners earlier that season in which City were nearly beaten only to equalise late on, and due to a red card suspension. Arsenal won both matches.
Arsenal have done some excellent business this summer with Bruno Guimaraes and Christos Tzolis joining the club. But this transfer, outside of their control, might be the best of the lot for the Gunners.
In the Community Shield, the new era, headed up by the £116million addition of Elliot Anderson, was overrun in the middle of the park as Guimaraes, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Martin Odegaard tore through the baby blue armour. Ayyoub Bouaddi is expected to arrive at City this summer in another mega-money deal, but the 18-year-old has a very big burden to bear, with Anderson, and Arsenal will hope City’s defensive fragilities without Rodri will extend.
Where Arsenal might be hurt is if they happen to draw Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League. Now a consistent contender, their chances of meeting their old European rivals have increased considerably, and that promises to be quite the clash.