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No arm around the shoulder – Pep Guardiola counts the cost of Rodri red card
No arm around the shoulder – Pep Guardiola counts the cost of Rodri red card
On Tuesday, Pep Guardiola had been happy to eulogise about Rodri, quick to agree when it was suggested his fellow Spaniard was the best midfielder in Europe at the moment. Yet as the man who earned Manchester City their first Champions League trudged past him, Guardiola stood and stared. There were no consoling words, no arm around the shoulder, no superlatives and no celebration. The City manager may have already been counting the cost of a red card. Not against Nottingham Forest, who were beaten anyway, but for the three occasions when he will be without a talisman. Rodri will be banned against Newcastle, in the Carabao Cup, plus Wolves and Arsenal in the Premier League. The loss of a big-game player for the biggest match of City’s season so far could be telling. A couple of seasons ago, Rodri was City’s match-winner against Arsenal. There will be no repeat in October and the chances are that Mikel Arteta will welcome his suspension. Certainly, if anything halts City, who equalled their longest winning start to a Premier League campaign, it could be a loss of key players. Suddenly Guardiola, the manager who collects midfielders, looks short of them. Ilkay Gundogan is gone, Kevin de Bruyne is injured for the long term, Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva for the short term. City will study the fitness bulletins for the Croatian and the Portuguese, particularly ahead of the trip to the Emirates Stadium. A rare sighting of Kalvin Phillips on the pitch, and not merely for the last couple of minutes in a token cameo, counted as a desperate measure, by Guardiola’s standards. If Rodri has acquired a ubiquity of late at City, this was an illustration it is not always a benefit. He has been a scorer more than before and turned creator, with a wonderful pass that led to Phil Foden’s opener. But when there was a flashpoint immediately after half-time, it involved him. After they had bumped chests, he grabbed Morgan Gibbs-White by the throat; the hysterical reaction of the Englishman scarcely helped his cause, but the Spaniard’s reaction was needless. It seemed out of character, too: Rodri is no stranger to yellow cards but this was the first red of his City career. As VAR upheld referee Anthony Taylor’s decision, it is hard to imagine it will be overturned should City appeal. It came in the context of a match that felt unnecessarily fractious. Guardiola got a first-half yellow card for dissent and Ederson a caution for going head-to-head with Taiwo Awoniyi, while Forest amassed seven bookings. Yet Rodri’s exit also meant that from the most comfortable of starts – City had two goals within a quarter of an hour, 90 percent of possession after 27 minutes – they had to offer an illustration of their grit. Plan B for Guardiola was to withdraw two of his attack-minded players, Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez, and overload on defenders, with substitute Nathan Ake making it five at the back. Amid a role reversal – Forest, initially defensive, sent on Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chris Wood and Divock Origi - a clean sheet was secured with the aid of a 5-3-1 formation that Guardiola rarely deploys. It was a testament to their defending that there were few alarms. But it made a break from the norm whereas, until Rodri’s sending off, there was a familiar feel. The bare facts are that City have played 20 games at the Etihad Stadium in 2023 and won all 20; it is still the case that the last team to emerge with a draw here were Frank Lampard’s Everton. There was another recurring theme. After scoring once, but mustering several glaring misses, from 15 shots across the games to West Ham and Crvena Zvezda, Erling Haaland converted his first chance. The 6.66 percent conversion rate from those two games was consigned to the past, aided by poor marking by Forest, when Matheus Nunes stood up a cross and the Norwegian supplied an emphatic header. It was a first assist in City colours for Nunes, the summer signing from Wolves, and a second City goal. Haaland should have had a second of the day, volleying over from Ake’s late cross, but by then he was isolated in attack. Forest had begun by dropping captain Joe Worrall, despite fielding a back five. They still conceded inside seven minutes, twice within 14. The opener at least offered Rodri something to savour. He provided the kind of pass more associated with the injured De Bruyne, a diagonal ball behind the Forest defence for the on-rushing Kyle Walker to cushion a cut-back. Foden hooked in a half-volley. It seemed to set the tone for a stroll, but the side-effect of victory – with Rodri’s dismissal – means it may yet prove an afternoon City rue. Read More Pep Guardiola provides positive Jack Grealish update ahead of Man City return Kyle Walker to continue as Manchester City skipper ‘until the time is right’ Julian Alvarez relishing Erling Haaland link-up as Man City launch CL defence
2023-09-24 00:48
Windows XP Activation Algorithm Cracked For Offline Use
Windows XP Activation Algorithm Cracked For Offline Use
The Windows XP activation algorithm has been cracked offline using Linux, The Register reports. According
2023-05-29 04:36
Karen Vergata: Gilgo Beach murders police identify body found in 1996
Karen Vergata: Gilgo Beach murders police identify body found in 1996
No-one reported the 34-year-old missing after she vanished on Valentine's Day 1996.
2023-08-05 03:46
How tall is Burj Khalifa? Record-breaking building wasn't always the tallest man-made structure in the world
How tall is Burj Khalifa? Record-breaking building wasn't always the tallest man-made structure in the world
The Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the world's tallest building
2023-10-26 14:53
Caicedo close to joining Chelsea as Ward-Prowse moves to West Ham
Caicedo close to joining Chelsea as Ward-Prowse moves to West Ham
Central midfielders continue to be in big demand in the Premier League
2023-08-14 17:09
Xi Says China Seeks to Be Friends With US, Won’t Fight ‘Hot War’
Xi Says China Seeks to Be Friends With US, Won’t Fight ‘Hot War’
President Xi Jinping said China wants to be friends with the US and said his nation won’t fight
2023-11-16 17:05
More Than 100 US, EU Politicians Want Oil CEO Removed as COP28 Head
More Than 100 US, EU Politicians Want Oil CEO Removed as COP28 Head
More than 100 US and EU lawmakers appealed to the leaders of their countries and the United Nations
2023-05-23 17:59
Alix Earle sets hearts racing with stunning bikini photos from Greece, fans call her 'unreal'
Alix Earle sets hearts racing with stunning bikini photos from Greece, fans call her 'unreal'
Earle showed off her incredible body while tanning beside a pool overlooking the ocean in Mykonos, Greece
2023-06-20 15:34
Netflix documentary 'Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me' sheds light on her tragic death
Netflix documentary 'Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me' sheds light on her tragic death
'Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me' reveals how Playboy star was suffering from various health problems and personal issues just before she died
2023-05-16 13:00
Jacksonville gunman was turned away from historically Black university before racist shooting that killed 3 at nearby store, authorities say
Jacksonville gunman was turned away from historically Black university before racist shooting that killed 3 at nearby store, authorities say
The gunman who killed three people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday had earlier been turned away from the campus of a historically Black university -- just blocks away from the site of the shooting that targeted Black people, authorities said.
2023-08-27 13:29
Former Elon Musk employee speaks out on 'ridiclous' death of Neuralink's monkeys
Former Elon Musk employee speaks out on 'ridiclous' death of Neuralink's monkeys
A new report from Wired has alleged that Elon Musk's Neuralink - a neurotechnology company developing a brain-computer interface - euthanised the company's macaque subjects after they suffered various complications from the implant. The report comes after human-test subjects were recently approved for Neuralink's clinical trial. Elon Musk had claimed earlier this month that "no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant, but public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and seen by Wired, suggest that the primate subjects suffered complications including "bloody diarrhoea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema." Musk had acknowledged the deaths on September 10 on Twitter/X, denying the deaths were "a result of a Neuralink implant", and that researchers had selected subjects who were already "close to death." However an anonymous former employee called this "ridiculous" if not a "straight fabrication." However, the public records reviewed by Wired suggest a different story. The PCRM, a nonprofit aiming to abolish live animal testing, claim that Musk knew his comments about the primate subjects deaths "to be false". They write that investors deserve to hear the truth about the safety, "and thus the marketability," of Neuralink's product. A December 2019 experiment outlined in one of the documents mentioned a subject known as Animal 15. The documents said that the subject "began to press her head against the floor for no apparent reason" just days after receiving the implant. Her condition only worsened as she "began to lose coordination" and "would shake uncontrollably when she saw lab workers." Staff finally euthanised her months later. Last year, the PCRM filed a complaint with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) alleging that Neuralink's practices violate the Animal Welfare Act. The US Department of Transportation is also investigating Neuralink over allegations contimanted devices that were removed from monkeys' brains were illegally transported. Indy100 have reached out to Neuralink for comment. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-09-21 17:29
Valve Launches Steam Charts Section for Market Insights
Valve Launches Steam Charts Section for Market Insights
Valve has replaced its old Steam stats page with a revamped Steam Charts section offering a surfeit of realtime data.
1970-01-01 08:00