Rodri believes Man City’s Wembley success sent Arsenal a Premier League warning
City trail Arsenal by nine points but have a game in hand and will enjoy home advantage when the teams clash next month.
Rodri believes Manchester City’s Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal could have a significant bearing on the title race.
City, who trail the Gunners by nine points in the Premier League, landed a blow on their rivals by beating them to the season’s first major silverware with a 2-0 victory at Wembley on Sunday.
It was also the perfect way to bounce back from their Champions League elimination by Real Madrid in midweek and Rodri feels belief has been restored.
“A lot, a lot,” said the City midfielder when asked if the result could impact the title race. “That’s why I told you it’s a game not only for this title but to show that we can beat them.
“The Madrid game was pretty tough but the team has recovered.
“We knew it was a very important game not only because of the cup but also because we had to face the best team in the league.”
City, who have a game in hand, will face the Gunners again in a potentially pivotal Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium on April 19.
They currently have just two games scheduled before then – a postponed fixture against Crystal Palace still needs to be rearranged – while Arsenal will be in action four times.
Rodri said: “It’s clear we didn’t want to go out of the Champions League but we went out and now we have to take the positives, we have more time to prepare for the games.
“There’s still a lot to do but that’s something to take into account – but we also have to celebrate this.
“Now we need to rest, go back for the next round of internationals and come back with the optimism that we still have two more competitions to fight for.”
City needed to weather an early storm at Wembley but largely dominated the contest and took firm control with two headers in quick succession from Nico O’Reilly after an hour.
Rodri said: “I felt like they dropped a bit physically, we detected it and we wanted to go for them.
“You can tell when you have players who are good in the area and Nico O’Reilly has again shown his potential.”
