Manchester City midfielder Rodri has acknowledged Arsenal’s growth as the Gunners continue their pursuit of the Premier League title.
Arsenal remains determined to end their two-decade wait for another league crown.
In the last two seasons, they have come close to achieving this goal, but Manchester City has edged them out on both occasions.
Last season saw Arsenal push City to the very end, taking the title race down to the final moments of the campaign.
Although they fell short, Arsenal demonstrated they are now capable of competing at the highest level and potentially winning the league.
Rodri recognises Arsenal as a formidable rival and believes that Mikel Arteta’s team has now reached the same level as City.
He said, as quoted by the Daily Mail:
‘They (Arsenal) have done great.
‘I would say they’re at the same level as us and for sure, they’re going to be there.
‘They’ve shown their character and that they can fight until the end. We expect the same team – a team that can win 20 games in a row so we will have to push ourselves to our limits again if we want to win the title.’
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I think we are below City and have not reached their level. Proof is in the league.
We are now at their level and at the same time we have a greater thirst for the title. For this year I am very optimistic that we will finish first. Siti is no longer scared.
I don’t think we’re at the level of Man City. We could finish third this season.
I don’t think we are at City’s level, we have nothing to show for it, no silverware.
We are improving, we can compete with City, but not sure we can best them yet. Let us achieve something first before making any comparisons.
As far as “hunger” goes, City still has the edge in my opinion. They finish off strong whenever they had a chance, and we have yet to do the same.
Hopefully as we develop and mature as a team this is the next step.
Hey, being at City’s level doesn’t mean Ars is at per with City in terms of silverwares plssssssssssssssss. Rodri simply means perfrormance. Wasn’t ir glaring that Ars picked the most point from the top 4 (6) last season than any other top EPL club did? SO get it right, its simply performance level.
Wasn’t it also glaring how we continue to choke when the pressure is on? If we beat Villa last year we stayed on top, but we have not cleared that hurdle yet.
So now performances matter like silverware? So is “Top 4” now a “trophy” again in your opinion?
Entertaining how people continue to jump through hoops to justify results.
Thanks for telling me what Rodri meant, seeing how you clearly know exactly what is in his mind.
Keep on justifying, lets see how this season turns out shall we? I hope we finish tops, but I for one will not make excuses or move goalposts trying to equate Arsenal with City.
We are at there level now. The stats shows 2 point difference and just 5 goal difference. The title would have gone either way on the last day. We need to sustain that performance and improve our performance against Aston Villa that’s all. We took 4 points off city last season. If we replicate that performance this season we might end up with the league. The record shows that it was a very big performance in premier League history. In some seasons past, that point tally would have been enough to win it. You won’t be saying we are not at there level had Son scored that glorious chance for spurs against city, a chance that had Guardiola lying down on the ground.
I guess that’s the “what if” scenario. Unfortunately, it’s only the “what is” scenario that counts in the end, and in the record books as well.
There’s no guarantee that any team – City, Arsenal, anyone – will necessarily replicate (let alone surpass) their performance in the previous season. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I think he was talking about Arsenal now (in 2024-25), wasn’t he. Clearly Arsenal haven’t matched City previously because, as others have said, there’s no silverware to show for it (a bit of a giveaway really).
Only time will tell if Arsenal can match (or overtake, more accurately) City this season. It’s far, far too early to make predictions one way or the other. For a start the transfer window hasn’t closed (although it’s certainly beginning to) so there may be moves left by City and/or Arsenal that could alter the relative squad strength of one or the other.
We’ll get a little better idea after ten PL games or so I would think. Although as the last two seasons have shown – in City’s favour, unfortunately – it’s not how you start but how you finish the season that counts.
We’ve got one of the worse starts to play I would say if we get through this first ten games and we’re close to the top then we have every chance of finally finishing number 1. But city are formidable they have a easier start than us so after 10 games they could be 6 points ahead but I still think we’re claw that back, we won’t be top at Christmas this year I don’t think, but if we are wow we’ve done really well. We need to sign a striker to get to there level and beat them or a goal scoring winger who can play either side just as well. I’m getting old so they have to win soon or ill be dead before we win the league. We’ll I might be lucky and get 30 more years who knows. Just seams so long ago since I watched us win the league. Striker or fail that my opinion
We are not city, obviously, but football wise we’re at city’s level. In the championships league last season we got to the same level. In the premier league we pushed to the end.
Last season city luckily picked a point against us and you say we’re not at their level. Maybe we’re not where we want to be yet, but obviously we know where we’re. We are at the level where teams don’t want to play us, even City.
City, very rarely slip up when it counts. We do. Look at their trophy cabinet and look at ours, these last few years. We are not at their level. We have to prove it first, to say we are.
Reggie
Another indicator, if you will, was how Arteta approached playing City at home.
We played not to lose, happy with a draw. I believe Rodri commented on this as well, which shows we are not at their level.
If we were, why not go there and fight, trade punches to see who comes out on top. Unfortunately, we decided to park the bus and played not to lose.
Entertaining how “Top 4” seems almost like a trophy again, seeing how for the last few years under Wenger it was a point of mockery. Now we celebrate finishing 2nd, rather than addressing or questioning why we fell short yet again; both times we had our own fate in our hands.
City at their home pitch I should have clarified.
Agree Durand.
City will be 2nd of Arsenal provided arsenal can land Mikel Merino