City Watch: Blues scrape past Southampton as Rodri becomes first City player to win Ballon d’Or

It’s been an eventful few weeks to be a Manchester City fan, with the return of the Blues since the latest international break and a few good results to show for it.

Before discussing the game against Southampton on the weekend, I’d like to start by talking about this years Ballon d’Or winner, our very own, Rodri. I honestly believe that last season, Erling Haaland deserved to win the award but was beaten to it by Lionel Messi. However, this year, I don’t think there could be any debate as to who the deserving winner was.

Rodri has been by far our most important player over the last few years. The award itself is almost always won by attacking players, so it’s really refreshing to see a defensive midfielder who isn’t always involved in the goals directly or showing up on the regular stats be recognised for his ability and impact on the pitch.

The Spaniard is the first ever Manchester City player to win the prestigious award, and hopefully the first of many to come. The impact that Rdori possesses isn’t just shown on the pitch, but also off it. I’ve spoke in this column previously about how City are a completely different team without him and that with him missing, his teammates don’t seem as confident to play high up the pitch.

This brings me nicely onto the game at the weekend! The Blues faced Southampton at the Etihad on Saturday, following a convincing 5-0 win against Sparta Prague in the Champions League last week. 

City took the lead early on when, after just five minutes, following three Premier League games without a goal, Erling Haaland opened the scoring from a fantastic Matheus Nunes cross. It’s worth mentioning that although Nunes hasn’t been at his best since joining the club, he’s been really impressive in the last few games and has started playing a little wider. His form is definitely one to watch if he were to keep his position on the left.

Following the goal, as you would expect, City dominated the game, barely allowing Southampton out of their own half. There seemed to be and has been something missing in the last few games.

I mentioned before how Rodri makes the players around him better and I do believe that with him in the team, his teammates feel more comfortable sitting higher up the pitch knowing he’s there to sweep up any potential counter attacks. City’s passive approach to the rest of the game illustrated his absence perfectly, despite winning the game 1-0.