Pep Guardiola was nine months early with his £50m Man City prediction that is saving their season

Pep Guardiola got excited about Nico Gonzalez in February but the Manchester City midfielder has taken his time to reach his best level.

Wednesday night at the Etihad wasn't all positive for Manchester City. There was another win, another Erling Haaland goal, a Phil Foden masterclass and the sense of momentum building once again.

But it's easy to forget now that the evening actually started on a bum note and the arrival of a team sheet was once again missing Rodri's name. Nothing to worry about, stressed Pep Guardiola, and by 11pm nobody was really worrying at all.

Guardiola has already predicted Rodri won't be back to his best until next summer, but there's no doubt there is some concern around the 29-year-old, who is finding it increasingly difficult to get going again, nearly 14 months after sustaining an ACL injury that has essentially put his career on hold.

The last week sums up the stop-start nature of Rodri's season. Not fit enough to be involved against Swansea, back on the bench and coming on for the final minute against Bournemouth, and then out again when Borussia Dortmund arrived at the Etihad. Right now, any time Rodri is available for City feels like a bonus.

He has started six games this season, but none since October 1, and he got on the pitch in just two of the last eight games, for a combined 23 minutes of football. Getting him fully fit and keeping him there is proving a difficult task.

The reason for the general lack of alarm right now, however, isn't the reasonably upbeat fitness bulletin. Rodri clearly won't be fit enough to start against Liverpool and who knows when he will next be ready to begin a game for the Blues.

Instead, it appears that the serial drama over how City can cope without him is over. It has been decommissioned because Nico Gonzalez is now that man. No Rodri, no problem, and it's been a long time since City could say that.

The best thing you can say about Rodri's absence and Gonzalez's performances as a stand-in is that it hasn't really been a topic of conversation for a few weeks. The 23-year-old's displays are easing the pressure on Rodri to push himself to play and risk further setbacks.

The visit of Liverpool to the Etihad this weekend might usually be a time for fretting about Rodri's availability. It is the kind of game where you need a holding midfielder who can put a stop to their fast breaks.

But without the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner, it is Gonzalez who will stand in and there will be no great cause for introspection and concern ahead of the arrival of last season's champions.

It would be a fourth successive start for Gonzalez, for only the second time in his City career, and he would have started six of the last seven. The noticeable thing about the game he didn't start is that he was badly missed in defeat at Villa Park.

The former Porto midfielder has somehow only made 30 appearances for the club since his £50million January transfer, but he has packed an awful lot into them.

He was labelled a 'mini-Rodri' by Guardiola after just the second of those games, a phrase that came too soon and possibly put too much pressure on a player still learning his way, who was trying to adapt to a new league in the middle of the season.

A few months later, Guardiola had banished Gonzalez to the margins and there were times during the summer when it felt like his Etihad career might not get beyond six months. At the start of the season, he was on the bench for four successive games after starting the first two matches of the campaign.

But he has stuck at it and made the most of the chances that have continued to come his way. City have won the last seven matches that Gonzalez has started and that feels like a telling statistic in itself.

He is clearly in the best form since his mid-season move from Portugal and he will be one of the first names on the team sheet against Liverpool this weekend. City's mini-Rodri is now up to the task.