Pep Guardiola fires Rodri warning as Man City chase Arsenal

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about Rodri as he reflected on a 2025 than he feels has been better than it was portrayed

Pep Guardiola is relishing the prospect of making the best team in 2025 even stronger in 2026 with Rodri back in the Manchester City squad. The Ballon d'Or winner returned to the bench against Nottingham Forest and City are hopeful that he can play an important part in their push for silverware in the coming months.

Last season was one of Guardiola's worst in management as an injury crisis in the squad triggered weaknesses that they were unable to overcome. At their worst, the Blues lost nine out of 12 games in all competitions between October and December 2024 as they crashed out of Premier League and Champions League contention.

However, a £175m spend in the January transfer window stabilised the team with Omar Marmoush in particular a key figure in a team that did enough to reach the FA Cup final and earn Champions League football for this season. For all the perception around the drop-off last season, their revival came early enough to mean that no team won more Premier League games than them last year, or had a higher points-per-game tally in 2025 than the Blues.

"Before the start of last season I said I never expected to go to the transfer window in winter time and in the end we bought three or four players because we didn’t have players," said Guardiola. "Without those players we wouldn’t be in the Champions League this season. I think we would have been playing in the [Europa] Conference without those signings.

"Basically we didn’t have players for a long, long time, and the moment with the new players and then with three-quarters of the season gone others came back, we were the best team in the Premier League in the last 10 to 15 games in the season.

"At the end of last season, what we have done, overcome the problems that we had. One of the best seasons we have had as a team. The guys who were there, all the season were there, the staff and background staff last season was arguably one of the best that we had. Because it's how you overcome the problems.

"In this perspective, now every time when I reflect on what happened last season, I'm more proud than ever about what we have done as a club, how we handled the bad, bad situations. How the hierarchy, how Khaldoon [al Mubarak, chairman], how the CEOs, how incredibly messaged the support: 'Let's go, let's go, let's go.' And just in this incredible club it can happen."

Despite a ropey start to the 2025/26 season, City rallied and have produced impressive form for the last three months to put themselves into an excellent position in the Premier League and Champions League. Victory at Sunderland on New Year's Day will keep them two points behind leaders Arsenal at the halfway point of the campaign.

Rodri has started just four of City's 18 games so far - and none since early October - with his continued injury complications forcing Guardiola to be without one of his best players. City have been more cautious since the setback the midfielder suffered at Brentford, and are hoping their patience pays off in the coming months as they look to chase down Arsenal again.

"We miss him a lot. The only thing I want is Rodri to be happy. That's all I want. The knee I know is fine, the muscles are fine. I want the Rodri that we met, his joy in playing, his presence and body language and this kind of stuff. I want it for him, for the team, of course, selfishly," he said.

"We want him. Hopefully, step by step, he can be involved with us. Of course, the other players; we miss [Mateo] Kovacic as well a lot. Nico [Gonzalez] has been top. He's still young. He wants to learn and improve. He still has margin to improve as a player, but he's top. I've said many times, we miss him a lot, last season, Rodri. But not just him.

"The season would have been better if we'd just only missed Rodri. You're right, when you miss the best player in the world two seasons ago - an incredible figure to make a treble and four Premier Leagues in a row. A massively important figure. You miss him, of course.

"For one week, three weeks, you can handle it. More than one year and a half, it's a lot of time. With Rodri we are a stronger team, There's no doubt about that."